


Moving On

by Fremione4Lyfe



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-02-19
Updated: 2021-03-10
Packaged: 2021-03-15 16:01:42
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 9
Words: 44,455
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29561598
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Fremione4Lyfe/pseuds/Fremione4Lyfe
Summary: After the war, Harry and Ron up and leave, and that leaves Hermione finishing her last year at Hogwarts alone. Or is she alone? New friendships, vacations, and feelings that Hermione did not expect to arise means that her last year at Hogwarts will be truly interesting. But can she, and everyone else around her, truly move on after the war?
Relationships: Angelina Johnson/George Weasley, Draco Malfoy/Theodore Nott, Hermione Granger/Fred Weasley, Luna Lovegood/Blaise Zabini, Neville Longbottom/Ginny Weasley
Comments: 30
Kudos: 92





	1. Rebuilding

**Author's Note:**

> Hi, all!  
> Thanks for reading my FanFiction. The main concept is Fremione (FredxHermione) but I also want to show that Hermione forms so many new friendships and that she isn't just the brains of the Golden Trio. She has to move on past Harry and Ron and rely on new friends and old. It's to show her strength and her growth even without the other two with her.  
> I hope you all enjoy!

Chapter 1: Rebuilding

Hermione let out a deep breath and wiped the sweat off her forehead. She was almost done with the small pile of debris that she had been working on for a few hours. Her and some of her fellow classmates had decided to be part of a clean-up crew for Hogwarts. It was one month and twenty-two days after the war, and Hogwarts was looking almost as good as new. There were a few piles of debris that still needed to be worked on, but the majority of it was repaired and being put back together. Hermione had spent the majority of the last month and a half helping with moving piles and fixing the wards around the grounds.

“Oy, Granger!” Hermione turned her head just in time to catch the bottle of water that was being thrown at her. “You really need to learn to take a break. You would think the _brightest witch of her age_ would know she needs to actually drink water and relax once and a while.”

Hermione turned to look at the voice talking. Draco Malfoy was sauntering over to her with Theo Nott following close behind. Hermione smiled. Her, Theo and Draco had become close over the last few weeks. In fact, Hermione would actually call them some of her closest friends. She liked this new version of Draco; he was still a right-git, but he had lost his malice after the war. Hermione remembered vividly the moment she had changed her opinion of the Slytherin Prince.

_Hermione was out of breath. She had gotten separated from Harry on Ron on the way to the boathouse. She was throwing spells left and right, helping where she could, fighting to get there. To get to Harry. She looked to her right, and she saw Fred and George fighting back-to-back. They were incredible, throwing spells Hermione had not even heard of. As she watched, they got separated and overwhelmed by Death Eaters. Before she could blink, the wall behind Fred had gotten hit by a stray spell and it started to crumble._

_“NO!” Hermione screamed and ran towards him._

_All of a sudden, Fred flew backwards, away from the falling debris. He landed and hit his head on the floor. Hermione froze. She watched a s George ran over to him. She watched as he leaned over his fallen twin, whispering to him gently. She watched as Fred’s eyes slowly fluttered shut. Hermione looked to where the spell had come from and saw Draco Malfoy with his wand still out looking at where Fred had been standing not even a moment before. In his place was a giant piece of the wall. Had Draco not stepped in and cast stupefy, Fred would be under that rubble._

_Hermione snapped out of her frozen stupor and ran over to help Fred get George to safety. Hermione breathed a sigh of relief when she saw his chest rising up and down. She reached over and moved his hair out of his eyes. His eyes fluttered open and met hers. He gave her the smallest of smirks and closed his eyes again. Hermione felt hot tears on her cheeks._

_While George carried Fred to the Great Hall where the rest of the wounded were being kept, Hermione turned around and saw Draco still standing and staring at where Fred had fallen. Hermione walked over to him. She was vaguely aware of Blaise Zabini and Theo Nott standing nearby, fighting whoever dared get too close. She walked in front of Draco and moved her head until his eyes met hers. Draco looked more scared than Hermione had ever seen him. His normal stony glare had been replaced by true fear- fear that he was about to watch one of his classmates die. At first, she was confused. Draco and his family served the Dark Lord, his house was their headquarters throughout this entire war. Hermione finally looked to the other Slytherins and noticed who they were fighting off._

_Death Eaters._

_Hermione’s eyes widened in shock. She recognized a few of the cloaked figures that they were fighting off. As she watched, she saw a Death Eater turn his attention away from Theo and Blaise and look at Draco. Hermione reacted faster than she had before. She shoved Draco behind her and yelled, “Petrificus Totales!” The Death Eater fell where he stood._

_Draco just stared at Hermione, truly shocked by her actions. He hadn’t expected her to protect him, not after all he had done. She turned around and met his eyes once again. A silent agreement passed between them: they were on the same side. They were fighting together. Before Draco could process what happened, Hermione had thrown her arms around his neck and was hugging him. Draco had to fight to keep his balance, but he managed and hugged her back. They both weren’t quite sure what this all meant, but once she withdrew, she locked eyes with both Blaise and Theo and gave them a huge smile._

_“Stay safe,” Hermione told all of them._

_“Not to put too much pressure on you, Granger, but the faster you lot get this over with, the safer we’d all be,” Theo said in his sarcastic tone. Surprisingly, Hermione found herself laughing._

_“I’ll do my best,” Hermione called over her shoulder as she ran for the boathouse. She worried for a quick second that she had just put the lives of all of her friends and family in the wrong hands, but she shook that off when she remembered Draco’s eyes._

_Hermione knew she made the right decision when she watched the three Slytherins stay on the side of Hogwarts and ignored the demands of Voldemort and their parents._

“Thank you, Draco. Theo.” Hermione smiled. She took a few gulps of the cold liquid and realized that maybe Draco was right. Her throat was dry and scratchy, and she realized her legs were quaking, begging for a rest. She would never admit that to Draco, though.

Hermione sat down on a piece of debris and pulled out some sandwiches from her bag. Molly had made sure she packed enough food in Hermione’s bag for her, Ginny, Neville, Luna, George, Draco, Theo, and Blaise. It was rather normal for there to be a huge crowd at the Burrow these days. Molly and the rest of the Weasley’s had taken in the Slytherin boys as their own after their parents had all been taken to Azkaban for their war crimes. They all stayed at the Burrow the first few weeks after the war, until their houses were deemed safe enough to return to. When Molly first heard what Draco had done for her son, she had pulled him into a hug in front of the entire Great Hall. Hermione would never tell anyone that, although he was embarrassed and tried to keep a straight face, Draco cried in the arms of Molly Weasley. Hermione passed Theo and Draco their food and they all sat around, devouring their food.

“How are the wards coming along?” Hermione asked. She knew that’s where the boys have been all day. Both boys were rather talented in broken spells and charms, and Professor McGonagall had asked both boys personally to assist the other professors in repairing the ones around Hogwarts.

“Good. I think they’re almost done. Thank Merlin, because if I had to hear Draco complain one more time…” Theo rolled his eyes and Draco punched him lightly on the arm. Theo smirked at him and gave him a playful shove back.

Hermione smiled at the two. To anyone else, they would have seen two best friends joking around. But Hermione saw Draco’s ears turn pink and his eyes light up before he would turn away. They have been together for roughly 6 months, according to Theo, and Hermione couldn’t be any happier for the two boys.

“Any word from Potter and Weaselbee?” Draco asked. Although he had gained some respect for Harry for saving the wizarding world, he could not get over his silly childhood feud with Ronald. Draco got along with the rest of the Weasley’s just fine, especially George.

Hermione shook her head. “I got another owl from Kingsley, letting me know all of our spots are still open at the Ministry if we still wanted them.” Hermione rolled her eyes. “I would have thought that he would have gotten the message by now that I am most certainly not interested.”

After the end of the battle, Harry and Ron had disappeared. They left a note saying that they felt too much pressure, that they had been put through so much, and wanted to take a break from everything. They left travelling but did not state where or when they would be back. They hadn’t even stayed long enough for Fred to wake up from the hospital, and that bothered Hermione the most. His brother- Merlin, _their_ brother- almost died and they had the nerve to leave before checking on his well-being. Hermione had felt that they were being entirely selfish. She had gone through the same hardships as them, if not more so, and she was here to help keep the family and the place she had considered home together. Not to mention that she never got the chance to speak to Ron about the kiss they shared in the Chamber of Secrets. As much as Hermione would have begged for that to happen years ago, she realized that she didn’t quite feel that way about him. She loved him as a best friend and a brother, nothing more. And she was starting to feel that he had taken off because he felt the same way, but just didn’t know how to tell Hermione.

Ever since their disappearance, Kingsley had been asking Hermione non-stop if she had heard from them. He wanted them to join the Auror training program immediately. He also wanted Hermione to join an internship for the Ministry to become a lawyer. Hermione had politely declined at first and kept Kingsley updated once a week with what she knew. Recently, however, she had been receiving an owl every other day at the Burrow from him. She was starting to lose her patience.

“Send him a strongly worded letter, then he’ll be off your back,” Draco suggested.

“I am not going to send a strongly worded letter to the _Minister of Magic_ ,” Hermione stressed, “Besides, he sounds less enthusiastic. He might be giving up soon.”

At that moment, Neville, Luna and Ginny came up and joined them. Hermione looked at Ginny and she noticed that her eyes were red and puffy. She had been crying again. Ever since Harry left without a word, Ginny had been devastated. Ginny had admitted to Hermione that she loved him and was hopeful that after the war they could start something genuine. But then Harry just left without even acknowledging Ginny or the fact that they had kissed at the Battle. At home, she would lock herself up in her room that she shared with Hermione and Luna and only come out for meals. She seemed to be getting better, even joining the rest of the group for the last few days in the rebuilding. Hermione gave them all a small smile.

“The dungeons and Gryffindor tower are officially free of debris,” Neville sighed. He gave a small smile of thanks to Hermione as she handed him his food. “Once we finish eating, we’ll help out here in the courtyard.”

“We will, too,” Theo chimed in.

“That would be wonderful,” Hermione smiled. She looked around her small group: Neville and Ginny having a quiet conversation, Luna eating her food with small bites, Theo and Draco had both stretched out and had their eyes closed. Hermione felt comfortable and at peace. She didn’t know if she would be able to move on after the war, if she would ever be happy again. She had felt so much loss, so much heartache. But in this moment, she felt the sun beating down on her and her friends, and she felt happy, truly happy, for the first time in a long time.

“Oy, I do hope you saved some food for little ole’ me,” a voice called out. The group turned and saw George Weasley walking towards them. He wore a lopsided grin and sat down next to Ginny. She smiled up at him and he swung an arm across her shoulders and pulled her into a side hug. The twins were the only ones who could get her to act somewhat normally these days. Although, Hermione noticed, she had seen her smile with Neville a lot more. She put that thought in the back of her mind to bring up later.

Hermione passed George his food. “Are you going to St. Mungo’s after we finish here?”

George nodded his head and finished chewing his food. That was one reason why Hermione liked George, he was much more polite than his brothers, who would talk with their mouths full of food. “I’ll just be stopping by to tell him hello and to check on his progress, but then I must be getting back to the shop.”

“Will you be going to St. Mungo’s, Hermione?” Theo asked. No one else would notice it, but Hermione noticed the subtle glint in his eye and the way he flashed her a smirk before taking another bite of food. Hermione blushed.

“Yes, I was thinking of popping by to say hello,” Hermione huffed. She knew Theo was toying with her. He knew that she fancied Fred, as did Draco. Neither of them had told anyone, but they did take great joy in teasing her to no end.

“Great! We can go together.” George smirked at her and she blushed harder. Hermione would swear that George knew of her crush even though that was impossible. “Will you come, too, Gin? He would love to see you.” George turned to Ginny and gave her a small smile. Ginny thought about it and gave a small nod. “Brilliant! Once we finish here, we can go.”

With that plan set, everyone finished eating and began working on the pile. Hermione worked with a new enthusiasm, but she would never admit that it was for Fred.

…

George, Ginny, and Hermione all walked into St. Mungo’s and started the trek up the stairs to Fred’s room. The first time Hermione visited, she remembered a weight settling on to her shoulders and chest. She felt like she couldn’t breathe and like she wasn’t really in her body. The first time she saw Fred lying in the hospital bed with a bandage wrapped around his head and not moving, she burst into tears. The healers had told them he was put into a coma so that his body and magic could heal on its own with no interruptions. Hermione sat by his side all day, along with the rest of the Weasley’s. Slowly, everyone left, one by one, until it was just Hermione by his side. She couldn’t stand the silence, the stillness. This was not what the twins were known for. She wanted everything back to normal; she wanted to see Fred smirk like he did when he just pulled a prank, hear his laugh when Bill or Percy fell into one of his and his brother’s traps, or see the way his deep blue eyes sparkled when she finally cracked a smile at one of their pranks or inventions. The quiet was starting to eat away at her, to make her start thinking the worst. So, she did the only thing she could think of doing.

She read to him.

At first, she would read him things like _The Daily Prophet_ or _The Quibbler_ , whatever she could find in the hospital. That started to get rather boring, even for Hermione. So, she started to bring books that she had been reading at home. It started off with wizarding books, old textbooks Hermione used to distract her from her thoughts or nightmares. But one night, she looked at Fred and she could have sworn he looked bored, even though he hadn’t moved an inch. With that, Hermione had an idea. She made a trip the next morning to muggle London to go to a book shop. She came back with _Matilda_ and _Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory_. She decided to start with _Willy Wonka_ , she thought that he would like that one the most. With a small smile, Hermione started reading. Hermione was just starting to talk about Violet and the magic chewing gum when she heard a voice.

“Bloody hell, this bloke is absolutely _brilliant_!”

She screamed and turned towards the door, ready to have a go at George for scaring her like that. When she realized no one was there, she slowly turned towards Fred’s hospital. Brown eyes locked onto blue, and Fred smirked.

“Hello, ‘Mione.”

Hermione rushed forward and threw her arms around him and burst into tears. He held her, rubbing small circles on her back, whispering that he was okay. She pulled away and went to go inform the healers he was awake and to send an owl to the rest of the Weasley’s. It was only when all of them came tumbling into the room in their sleep clothes that she realized it was well past visiting hours. George, Bill, and Charlie were all smirking at her and she blushed and slipped out of the room before anyone could say anything to her.

That was a week ago. Ever since then, Fred has been in the hospital resting and being monitored for any lasting side effects. So far, everything seems to be normal. He can walk, write, answer questions with his usual gusto. Fred just cannot recall the battle after he was hurt. The last thing he remembers is fighting back-to-back with George. When Charlie went to explain what happened, Fred stopped him. He wants to remember on his own. The healers told him that it could take some time, but Fred was determined that it will be _his_ memory, not just a story, that he recalls.

“Oy, mate, we’re here,” George called out as he opened the door. Fred glanced up from his book- he finished _Willy Wonka_ with Hermione and was now on _Matilda_ \- and grinned. He set down his book and stood up to hug his twin. George smirked when he pulled away, “You’re nothing but skin and bones, Freddie. How on earth do you expect to woo the witches with a body like that and a mug like _that_?”

Fred laughed, “At least I have all of my body parts. Angelina is always nagging about how you can’t hear her.”

“I just like to take the piss with her. Sometimes, I’ll turn my bad ear towards her when she’s talking about chores.” They all laughed at that.

The next person Fred hugged was Ginny. He gave her a nice, long hug and she buried her face into his chest. “Ginny, I can’t breathe,” he gasped, and Ginny let go. She was smiling ear-to-ear, something no one had seen in a long while.

“I’m sorry, I just haven’t seen you in days, it’s felt like ages. You are my favorite brother after all,” she said. George gasped and grabbed his heart in mock offense. “ _One_ of my favorite brothers,” Ginny amended with a smirk.

“Don’t mind him, Gin, he’s just mad I’m still the favorite after all this time he could have won you over. Plus, I still am the better looking,” Fred mock whispered. George stuck his bottom lip out in a pout. Finally, Fred turned to Hermione.

Hermione gave a huge smile and wrapped her arms around his neck, and he buried his head into her hair. She could hear Fred give a sniff and then he pulled away with his nose scrunched up.

“Have you been rolling around in the laundry room with all the dirty socks, ‘Mione?”

Hermione gave him a smack on the shoulder and sternly said, “You are a git,” and she moved to pull away from him. Fred laughed and pulled her back, and she couldn’t help but hug him. She loved his hugs.

After what seemed like ages, she pulled away and got settled into what had been dubbed her seat by the rest of the family. It was situated next to Fred on his right side and his stack of books were right next to her. No one seemed to mind, and when she first tried to give her seat up to George, he had winked at her and told her that it was just something he would have to get used to. Hermione had no idea what he meant by that, she still didn’t, but none of the other Weasley’s seemed to mind so she left it alone.

The rest of the time was spent telling Fred how the rebuilding was going, how everyone was at the Burrow, and George updating him on the status of the shop. Ginny even told him how the Holyhead Harpies had reached out to her, and that they would love to talk with her more after her final season of Quidditch. Fred was beaming at her.

“Wicked. Way to go, Gin!”

Ginny gave a small smile and looked at Hermione. She gave her a reassuring smile. “I wasn’t quite sure if I wanted to go for it. I haven’t ridden a broom all summer, and after last year with Snape and the Carrows and there being no quidditch, I wasn’t sure…”

Hermione interjected, “But we discussed it and decided that once the rebuilding was finished, you would get back on a broom and practice. Your brothers all said they would be more than happy to play some games, and Draco, Theo and Blaise all want to learn from you anyways. Merlin knows they need it.”

The three Weasley’s all laughed at that and Ginny reached over to give Hermione a small squeeze. She was grateful for her friends to be there to keep her together. She really was rather excited to get back on a broomstick, she loved the feeling of flying and missed playing with her brothers and friends. Maybe the rest of this summer will give Ginny that push that she needs to move on and get ready for her future.

Shortly after that, George and Ginny had to leave to get back to the shop. They said their goodbyes, and left Hermione alone with Fred.

“Well, I must be leaving as well. I promised Molly that I would he- “

“Thank you,” Fred interrupted. Hermione looked up and met his eyes. He seemed genuine, and Hermione knit her eyebrows together.

“What ever for?”

“For taking care of Gin. She must be going mad with Harry leaving and me being here and after everything else she’s been through. I haven’t been much help, but I know you have. So, thank you.” With that, he got up out of bed and gave Hermione a hug. He tucked her head into his chest and rested his chin on top. She wrapped her arms around his waist and gave him a small squeeze. She really didn’t know what to say. Frederick Gideon Weasley is never one to show his appreciation outright, and Hermione was taken aback by his genuine emotion.

“You best get going, you still smell like rancid socks, and I wouldn’t want mother yelling at you for being late,” Fred laughed as he pulled away from her. She huffed and tried to swat him, but he dodged her while still laughing. Hermione gave in and laughed with him.

“You, Fred Weasley, just might be the death of me yet.”

“Why, Hermione, are you asking me to spend the rest of your life with you? Not a bad thought, being with the brightest _and_ most beautiful witch of her age,” Fred smirked as he watched Hermione turned a shade of red he thought was only possible from his family. _What an absolutely beautiful sight_ , Fred thought. He watched as she tucked a stray brown curl behind her ear and Fred had wished she was close enough for him to do it. He watched as her other hand was tugging on the bottom of her t-shirt, that was dirty and stained from all the work she had been up to. Fred knew she didn’t see her true beauty, and that brought a small frown to his face as he watched her fuss over his comment. Something about that thought didn’t sit right with him.

Hermione’s coughing brought him out of his stupor, “Yes, well, I do plan on being part of the family for some time yet.” It was Hermione’s turn to smirk as Fred turned red and his mouth dropped open at what she couldn’t possibly be implying. “Ginny is my best friend after all.” With that, they both laughed and said their goodbyes.

Fred watched her leave and promised himself that he would force Hermione to see that she truly was beautiful and amazing. Especially to him. She did save his life, after all.


	2. New Beginnings

Chapter Two: New Beginnings

Hermione yawned and stretched as she felt the sun beat down on her through her window. She smiled as she realized it was Sunday, the first day of July. The first day she didn’t have to worry about going to Hogwarts to help rebuild. The first day she didn’t have to be anywhere, really. All of the Weasley’s, excluding Ron and Percy, would be here for Sunday dinner. Hermione was just planning her day of taking a stroll to the small lake with a blanket and a book when she heard it. What on earth was that noise?

Hermione slowly started to sit up in bed. Across from her, Ginny was awake, showered, and dressed. She had her long, flaming red hair tied into a high ponytail, and she had on her training gear for Quidditch: black shorts that were a little loose that stopped midthigh, a tight-fitting Gryffindor Quidditch tank top, and long black socks that reached her knees. She was tying her shoes and Hermione realized she was _humming_. Hermione hadn’t heard Ginny hum in… Hermione knit her eyebrows together. She couldn’t remember the last time she heard Ginny hum under her breath. She would do it all the time during their years at Hogwarts, and Hermione had teased her about it incessantly, but she loved the sound. Hearing it now brought back old memories of her easy-going, happy best friend. A slow smile started to spread across her face.

“You best be getting dressed, everyone will be over soon,” Ginny stated. Hermione gave her a confused look. “I invited over my brothers along with Draco, Theo, Blaise, and Neville to play a Quidditch game. Blaise couldn’t come, he had some kind of business meeting.” Blaise had taken over his family business once the war was truly done and over with. His mother and stepfather had been found guilty of having ties with the Dark Lord, and Blaise didn’t seem to care that both of them had been sentenced to Azkaban. He took over his mother’s winery with stride and had been doing amazing ever since. He showed up when he could to help with rebuilding and Hermione, although he could be arrogant and often times rude, struck up an odd friendship with him.

“When will they b- “ Hermione didn’t even get a chance to finish her sentence. When she looked out her window, she saw the familiar blonde head of Draco and the curly brown mop of Theo. “Bloody hell!” Hermione jumped out of bed and ran to her dresser. She didn’t bother looking to see what red jumper she threw on and paired it with a pair of jean shorts. She yanked on her socks and her white sneakers before heading to the bathroom to finish getting ready.

When Hermione finally made her way down to the living room, she had her red jumper tucked into her shorts, her hair up in a high ponytail, her teeth brushed, and face washed. She definitely hoped she didn’t still smell like rancid socks and before she rounded the corner, she cast a quick _scourgify_ , just to be sure. When she felt confident enough, she turned the corner and was greeted with a room full of people.

Draco and Theo were dressed similarly to Ginny, except their tank tops were loose and Slytherin colors. Neville was wearing a loose Gryffindor t-shirt and grey sweatpants. He was looking rather nervous, and Hermione guessed it was because he had never really played Quidditch before. Luna was wearing a light blue summer dress with silver flats and her hair in a braid off to the side. She looked very beautiful. Hermione often envied Luna’s natural beauty. Angelina Johnson was there in her Holyhead Harpies warm-up gear: a yellow t-shirt, black shorts, and yellow socks. Her and George had been together since leaving Hogwarts, and Hermione knew he planned on proposing soon. He wants to wait, to see if Ron will show up and be present for such a huge event. Hermione could tell that George was getting impatient but was holding on for Molly. She would be devastated knowing one of her children missed such a huge announcement. George, Bill, and Charlie were all wearing their Gryffindor Quidditch warm-up gear. Hermione noticed almost all of the Weasley’s were giving her a strange look, and Theo was smirking at her.

Thinking that she was just imagining things, she made her way around the room saying hello to everyone. She found herself talking to Neville and Luna.

“Will you not be playing today, Luna?” Hermione asked.

“No. The nargles told me that I might not be a very good flyer. I trust them, you know,” Luna replied in her airy smooth voice.

Hermione smiled. “Brilliant. We can read our copies of _The Quibbler_ together.” Hermione and Luna had spent a good amount of time reading together during the rebuild. Although Hermione didn’t understand what creatures they were talking about half the time, she enjoyed Luna’s company. Luna was also brilliantly smart and had a knack for explaining things. Hermione found she could talk to Luna about almost anything.

“Not joining us today, Granger? Is it still a fear of flying? I thought that was complete rubbish,” Draco teased, coming up behind their group.

“Relieved, Malfoy? Scared I was going to get up there and kick your arse?” Hermione teased back.

“Oh ho ho, Granger’s got jokes now. Adding that to your arsenal of never-ending knowledge? You do keep it in your hair, correct?” Hermione punched him on the shoulder.

“Git,” she said and he laughed. Hermione tried but couldn’t keep her smile in.

“I will never understand how you two became friends. It seems so… unnatural,” Neville said. He had a point. Most people would never believe Hermione “know-it-all” Granger would be friends with Draco “Slytherin-pureblood-prince” Malfoy. Her and Malfoy, once they got over their past issues, were fast friends. Both were intelligent- Malfoy was number 2 while Hermione was number 1- and shared a huge love for reading, especially history. No one was able to argue with Hermione like Draco, and no one was able to shut Draco up like Hermione.

“I can see it, actually. They are both wicked smart and they balance each other pretty well,” Charlie said.

“Nah, it’s weird,” Theo commented, and everyone laughed. At that moment, Molly came into the room.

“Come along, dears. Food’s up,” she said as she started shoving everyone into the kitchen. Molly pulled Draco to the side. “How are you, my boy? Are you eating well?”

Draco smiled softly at her. He had a huge soft spot for Mrs. Weasley. She readily accepted him into her family, open arms and no questions asked. He had never felt this feeling of comfort before and he easily fell into it. It scared him at first, but he realized he had wanted a loving hand for so long that he clung to it. He had started to lose weight, due to the fact that he hadn’t been eating or sleeping very well and was working day and night for his business. “I’m doing fine, Mrs. Weasley. I have Theo with me to make sure I don’t push myself too hard.”

“I can attest to that, Molly. He eats at least three meals a day, even if I have to force feed him with a funnel,” Theo chirped from across the room. Draco felt his ears tinge pink. He didn’t need everyone to know about his eating habits.

Molly put a soft hand on his cheek. “Good, good, dear. You need it. Let’s get you some more food, shall we?” She lead Draco to the table and he never felt more grateful that she shut that down before anyone could ask any questions. Draco grabbed a plate and joined everyone else in talking about the game and eating the abundance of food that Molly prepared.

As everyone was eating, Hermione looked around the table. She smiled at how happy and content everyone was. Everyone had struggled so much throughout the last few years, and now everyone was able to live their lives to the fullest. George and Angelina were sitting so close to each other they practically shared a chair, Draco and Theo were whispering quietly to each other and Theo’s ears were tinged pink, Fleur and Bill were both admiring Fleur’s growing belly, Ginny was giving Neville a quick run-down about Quidditch, with Charlie interjecting every once and a while. Luna was having a conversation with Molly at the end of the table. Hermione only wished Fred was here as well to enjoy his boisterous family.

Hermione was brought out of her stupor by a gasp from the head of the table. All heads whipped towards Mrs. Weasley, who was looking behind them with tears in her eyes and a hand up to her mouth. Everyone followed her eyes and saw Fred leaning in the doorway with a bouquet of flowers and a smirk on his face. He was wearing a St. Mungo’s shirt and the same jeans he had been wearing when he was first admitted. Everyone was just as shocked as Mrs. Weasley. Behind Fred, Mr. Weasley had a huge smile on his face as he put his arm around his son’s shoulders.

“Hi, mum,” Fred said before he crossed the room towards his mother. She shakily got up on her feet and accepted the flowers that Fred had brought for her. They were a beautiful orange, and from what Hermione could see, they were all different flowers. “The healers let me know that as long as I promise to come back for my check-ups once a month, I could go home.”

As soon as he had finished his sentence, Mrs. Weasley threw her arms around him and was hugging him so tight, Fred could hardly breathe. He didn’t mind though, he missed this. He missed his loud family, he missed his mother’s hugs, and her loud berating. It felt good to be home, and to finally move on with his life. As soon as Molly was done crushing his soul, everyone else got up to greet him as well. His brothers and Ginny were all telling him to get up and get ready for Quidditch (much to Molly’s disapproval), Angelina was telling him that maybe George would finally stop worrying, Fleur was talking so fast no one could understand what she was saying, Neville gave him a huge pat on the back, and Luna told him that there were nargles floating around in his head. Fred seemed genuinely surprised to see Draco and Theo but shook their outstretched hands no less.

Finally, Fred turned to Hermione. She locked onto those blue eyes and couldn’t bring herself to look away or move from her spot. She was shocked to see him. She was just visiting yesterday, and he had not once mentioned being able to leave. She narrowed her eyes and leveled her gaze at him.

“I knew you would be upset for not saying a word,” Fred stated. From behind his back, he pulled out a single purple hyacinth. Hermione remembered having a conversation ages ago with the twins on what different flowers meant. George had wanted to get Angelina the perfect bouquet for their first date. Surprisingly, Fred remembered purple hyacinths represent apologies. “I do hope you can accept it.”

Hermione couldn’t help herself. She threw her arms around his neck, almost knocking both of them over. Fred chuckled and hugged her back. She gave him a kiss on the cheek and took the flower from him. “Of course.”

Fred looked down at her jumper. “Although, one would think you were already expecting me home.” Hermione raised her eyebrows at him, and he pointed. She followed his finger, and her eyes grew wide. In her rush to get ready, she had pulled on one of Fred’s old jumpers. There in the middle was the huge ‘F’ in gold. She had taken a couple from his room when he first had gotten into the hospital. The smell of them calmed her down and helped her sleep. To this day, when she’s plagued by nightmares, she finds herself pulling one on to make herself feel better.

“I-erm… I can return it if- “

“Keep it, love,” she felt herself blush harder at the term of endearment. Fred smiled, “it looks better on you anyway.” Fred looked around, “I thought I heard something about a Quidditch match happening this afternoon?”

“Sure you remember how to play, Weasley?” Draco asked and immediately everyone went silent. Draco was sitting at his seat, nibbling on one of his muffins. He looked up at Fred and smirked.

Fred raised his eyebrows at him. “Blimey, Malfoy, did you already forget that I’m one half of the greatest beaters Gryffindor has ever known?” Him and George smirked at each other. “I seem to remember knocking you on your arse once or twice.” With that, the tension dissolved, and everyone laughed, including Draco.

…

An hour later, everyone was outside, and teams were being formed. There was some tension since there was an odd number of players. It was decided that whoever had Neville on their team would get the extra player. Neville took no offense; in fact, he was relieved. He didn’t feel as pressured to do well now that they had an extra player. Once that was solved, everyone was eager to choose teams. Team 1 consisted of: Ginny, Neville, Fred, Theo, and Bill. Team 2 consisted of: Angelina, George, Draco, and Charlie. To keep it fair, there was no Seeker and each team only had one Beater.

Hermione and Luna set up a small picnic blanket with some snacks and their Quibblers. They watched as the teams took off into the air and the game had officially begun. Hermione and Luna had a wonderful time talking about the Quibbler, the different creatures that were being talked about, and watching the game. The teams were pretty evenly matched; the score had remained tied thus far. Every once and a while, a “bloody hell!” could be heard, along with some foul mouthing, which was all taken in jest. Hermione looked up every once and a while to watch everyone play, but mostly to keep an eye on Fred. Hermione was worried that he would fall and hurt himself or that a bludger would come and hit him off his broom.

“Are you alright?” Luna asked with a worried expression on her face.

“I’m sorry, I must have dozed off a bit...” Hermione knit her eyebrows back together and absentmindedly stroked her hyacinth.

Luna followed her gaze. She gave her friend a small smile. “Here, let me see,” and she took the flower from Hermione’s hands. She pulled herself onto her knees and took Hermione’s hair out from the ponytail. She braided her hair and then wove the flower into it. Hermione wasn’t worried about destroying it; she can already tell it was one of the Weasley’s new products. They had been working on a line of Forever Flowers, where the flowers would never die, and could change color on demand. There had been some test runs, with Hermione helping George out in the shop for a few days, and after a few hundred dead flowers, an incident where the shop was filled with flowers causing George to sneeze for days afterwards, and accidentally dying Lee Jordan’s hair pink, they had finally perfected their charms. The twins decided to only start out with a few options; hyacinths, roses, and carnations. The packages even included what each flower meant and how to change the colors.

“He’ll be okay, you know.”

Hermione blinked. “What do you mean?”

“Fred,” Luna said in that easy going tone of hers. “He’ll be okay. He has all his brothers watching out for him. Besides, the whackspurts told me that he’s healed wonderfully.”

Hermione giggled and looked back up at the game. Fred was hovering on his broom and he reached up to wipe the sweat off his forehead. He must have felt someone was watching him because he looked around and then locked eyes with Hermione. He smiled and gave her a wink before taking off after the bludger going after Ginny. Hermione blushed and turned back to start helping Luna bring in their picnic. They had promised Molly that they would help get lunch ready, and as if she could hear them coming, she popped her head out of the back door and smiled warmly at them. As they passed by, Molly looked up towards her children, flying around like they used to when they were little, albeit with a few new faces. She was ecstatic that all of her children were building their lives and moving on from their horrid past. With one final smile at her children, blood or not, she followed the two young women inside to prepare lunch.

…

A few hours later, everyone was stuffed from their lunch of roast beef sandwiches and chips, and the Quidditch match had come to a draw. Whether that is because they were truly, evenly matched or because they were all exhausted and stuffed with food, Hermione wasn’t sure. She was content with leaning on the couch with Luna lying in her lap, reading one of Hermione’s old books. The boys had taken out the wizards’ chess set and had a tournament going.

“Longbottom, sometime _today_ , please,” Draco sighed. Neville raised his eyebrows at him.

“What’s the matter, Malfoy, scared that I’ll actually win?” Neville had definitely gotten more outspoken over the last year. At first, he tolerated Draco and Theo for the sake of everyone around him. Neville was genuinely surprised when both boys apologized for their actions in the past and for whatever misfortune they caused him in their younger years. He didn’t think the great Draco Malfoy would ever apologize to someone like him. After that, Neville and Draco seemed rather chummy with one another. Neville and Theo easily hit it off and became fast friends. The whole situation still shocked Neville to his core, but he was happy nonetheless.

“No, Longbottom, I’m scared that I will die before you make a move,” Draco said rather dramatically. He almost fell out of his chair when Neville finally made his move and said, “Check.”

“Thank, _Merlin!_ Someone did it, someone finally did it! Someone beat _the_ Draco Malfoy at Wizards Chess!” Theo was standing up and doing a jig around Draco’s chair. Draco looked absolutely mortified. He hadn’t lost a match to anyone in _years_. He was rather impressed with Neville’s play.

Draco cleared his throat. “Good game, Neville,” Draco stood up to shake Neville’s hand. Neville chuckled and took his outstretched hand. Next up to play was Ginny.

Just as Hermione had started to doze off, someone had sat on the couch with one leg on her left and one on her right. She looked up and realized it was Fred. She smiled up at him.

“Tired now, are we ‘Mione?” he asked her. She was practically asleep when he had come up to her.

Hermione laughed. “I suppose I am. I had a rather long day today.” She leaned her head against his leg and closed her eyes as he started to lightly brush her hair with his fingers.

“Are you not sleeping well?”

Hermione froze. Not many people knew about her nightmares. Only Draco and Theo knew, and that was because she had run into them in the middle of the night while they were staying at the Burrow. She thought that a small walk might help calm her down, and when she stepped outside, she had noticed the two boys sitting by a tree and decided to join them. There she learned that both boys had also suffered from nightmares, and she admitted the same to them. She didn’t want anyone to worry about her. Especially Fred. Most nights she was fine.

“’Mione?” she felt Fred’s hands still and realized she hadn’t answered his question.

“Hm? Oh, sorry, I must have dozed off. Too much sun can do that, you know,” she brushed off his worries. At that moment, Fred yawned himself.

“You might be on to something there,” he laughed. All of a sudden, three owls made their way into the room. One was the Weasley family owl, Errol, who had three letters in his beak. One Hermione recognized as Klaus, Draco’s eagle owl who was a gorgeous shade of grey, and he was holding two letters. The other Hermione didn’t recognize, but he was a beautiful shade of white like Hedwig and the thought made Hermione sad. The last owl was carrying only one letter.

“Umbra? What are you doing here?” Neville asked as the snowy owl flew over to him and landed on his shoulder.

“Klaus, this is an unexpected surprise,” Theo said as he gave the massive owl some pets on his head.

“Hermione, Ginny, these ones are for you,” Hermione hadn’t noticed Luna get up to go to Errol, who had perched on top of his cage. Hermione reached for the letter and when she couldn’t reach it, Fred grabbed it and handed it to her. Hermione gave him a small thank you and stared at the letter. It was emblazoned with the Hogwarts crest and she almost couldn’t believe that that was her name on the front. She opened up her letter and began reading Professor McGonagall’s elegant script:

_Miss Granger,_

_It is with a happy heart that I extend an invitation to complete your last year at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. We are aware that you were not able to complete your final year of schooling due to unfortunate circumstances. If you wish, you are welcome to finish your final year and take your N.E.W.T.s in the Spring. However, if you do not wish to attend your final year, it is possible to still take your N.E.W.T.s in accordance with the Ministry._

_It is also with great pleasure that I offer you the position of Head Girl, as I do believe our students need a strong role model in these trying times._

_Please owl me with your response no later than the 31 st of July of your decision._

_All the best wishes,_

_Headmistress McGonagall_

Hermione looked inside her envelope and pulled out a beautiful gold pin with ‘Head Girl’ written across it. Hermione couldn’t believe it. She had no idea what to do now that the rebuilding was done, but now she was being offered this wonderful opportunity. She looked over to Neville, who was grinning from ear-to-ear, and Hermione knew that he would attend. Then she looked over to Draco and Theo. They were both staring at their letters with uncertainty.

“Blimey, Head Girl, ‘Mione? That’s brilliant!” Fred yelled from behind her. The next second he had his arms across her shoulders and his chin resting on top of her head and Hermione couldn’t help but smile.

“That’s brilliant, Hermione! And now you can come back with Luna and I and we can have sleepovers in your dorm,” Ginny smirked.

“Congrats, Hermione. If anyone deserves this, it’s you,” Neville gave her a heartwarming smile that Hermione returned.

Then she furrowed her eyebrows together. “I wonder who Head Boy will be.” She was trying to rack her brain to figure out who McGonagall would put in that place if it wasn’t Harry.

“I think I might have an answer to that,” a voice called out from across the room. Hermione looked up to see Draco holding up a silver pin much like hers with Head Boy written across it. Hermione gasped and got up to hug him.

“Thank Merlin,” she whispered, “I thought I was going to end up with a right git.” She paused. “Well, a right git that I wouldn’t be able to handle.” Draco chuckled and hugged back. When she pulled away, she could see the fear in his eyes. When she looked at Theo, he had the same look. “What’s wrong?”

“Well, we might not be exactly welcome back at Hogwarts,” Theo started, “I mean, after everything our families have done, what _we_ have done, I don’t think they’ll be as forgiving as you lot.”

Hermione was confused. “What do you mean?”

Draco gave her a sad look. “I wasn’t exactly well-liked at Hogwarts,” he started, “Most students won’t be too happy to hear of the Death Eater coming back to school.” He rubbed his left forearm absentmindedly. Hermione knew what was under there. The scar from his Dark Mark. It wasn’t as intimidating anymore; it was a mess of unmoving, faded lines. Draco had once told Hermione that it didn’t burn anymore, but that he can still see how it used to be. He can still remember the pain of when he first got it. He can still feel the shame of seeing it for the first time against his pale skin. “I don’t understand why McGonagall would give me this,” Draco help up the silver pin. He was glaring at it, and Hermione could see his mouth turning downwards.

“She gave it to you because she sees how brilliant you are,” Hermione started. “You were number two all through our year. You did amazing things for the rebuilding. And if anyone tries anything, I’m sure…”

All of a sudden, Neville stood up. “You’re family now. And no one will mess with you as long as I’m around.” Hermione was surprised at the determined look on Neville’s face.

“Neville’s right,” Ginny said. “You’re not in this alone. You’ll have all of us.” And much to the surprise of everyone she walked up to the two boys and gave them a hug. Ginny hadn’t spoken to them much this summer, but she was grateful to the both of them for saving her brother. And they weren’t bad company to keep around. _Rubbish at Quidditch,_ Ginny thought, _but good blokes no less_.

Theo accepted her hug and said, “Alright, I’m in. As if I can turn down a speech like that.” They all laughed.

“You’re right, now I feel obligated to say yes,” Draco sighed. “But I will go. I have to face them all again someday.”

Hermione walked back over to the couch and Fred was giving her a weird look. She smiled at him and sat next to him and put her feet in his lap. He smiled at her and the look disappeared. She leaned over to lay her head on his shoulder, and he leaned his head against hers. The group sat in comfortable silence for a while, all of them tired from the day’s events. All of a sudden, Draco spoke up.

“I think we should all go to France.”

The group all looked at him with open mouths and wide eyes. Finally, it was George who spoke up, “Are you mad? We can’t just up and leave everything behind. We’re not Ha- “he snapped his mouth shut before he could finish.

“Not like that!” Draco huffed. “I meant in celebration. For getting a chance to finish schooling, for rebuilding Hogwarts, for Fred being out of the hospital, all of it. Theo and I had already planned on going there for business. My family has a small villa out there and we can stay for the week leading up to Hogwarts and then go to King’s Cross from there.”

The group stopped to think about that. It had been a long summer. There were so many good things happening in their lives and they did feel as if they deserved a break from having to worry. Plus, France was absolutely beautiful, and it had been a while since many of them had been there or been there at all.

Luna was the one to speak up first. “I’ve never been to France, and I would love to see it. I think it’s a wonderful idea, Draco.”

“I do, too.” Neville said and Ginny was nodding her head.

“I’m obviously in,” Theo chirped, and Draco punched him on the arm.

“George? Fred?” Draco looked at the two boys.

“We’re invited?” Fred asked in surprise. Him and Draco weren’t exactly enemies, but they weren’t best friends either. He had been content to have them all go and maybe bring him back a souvenir.

“Of course,” Draco rolled his eyes. “I did say we were celebrating you getting out of the hospital, or did you forget already, Weasley?”

Fred laughed. “Forge, did’ya hear that? Malfoy has jokes now. I think that’s a challenge”

George smirked at his twin. “Gred, I was thinking the exact same thing.” The twins locked eyes and Hermione saw the mischievous gleam behind them. _Malfoy has no idea what he got himself into,_ George thought. “I do think it’s a wicked idea, if we can find a way to make it work.” Hermione saw him glance slightly at Angelina. Hermione was wondering if he was going to use this opportunity to propose. She shot George a grin and he winked at her.

“Well, if Lee and Felicity think they can handle the shop, I don’t see why not,” Fred said.

“Let me owl my coach! Oh, I haven’t been to France in _ages_! Girls, we’re going shopping!” Angelina shouted. Luna and Ginny laughed at her outburst but then all three eagerly started talking about what they needed.

“Unfortunately, I won’t be able to join you, but do have a good time,” Charlie said.

“Bill and I already planned on being back home by then, zo ve vill be more than happy to zee you then and show you around,” Fleur said. Her and Bill spend most of their time in France but visit the Burrow regularly to visit Molly.

“Hermione? It seems like you’re the last one,” George said. Hermione looked at all of her friends and a slow smile split across her face.

“Let’s do it.”


	3. Planning

Chapter Three: Planning

The next few months seemed to fly by. Hermione found herself hanging around Weasley’s Wizards Wheezes more often than not. Sometimes she would be in front to help stock the store, sometimes she would be in the back with one or both of the twins working on new products. Other times, she was just there. She would sit at the counter and talk with Lee Jordan, whom she hadn’t seen for a long time. She was glad to hear that he was doing well. She learned that he had a fling going with Felicity, the other store worker that the twins had hired. Hermione had asked if it would grow to be anything serious, and he chuckled and left it at that.

Sometimes she would find herself talking to George. It’s amazing how much he had changed since being in school. Hermione found that she really loved spending time with him. He was a good listener, and he made Hermione feel calm. In turn, George enjoyed spending time with her. She grounded him, seeing the logic where he couldn’t. When he was an absolute mess about Fred, Hermione was the one that was there to help him through it. She would sit and listen to his ridiculous worries (“What if he forgets about me?”, “What if he gets _boring_ after waking up?”, “What if he ends up like Percy?”) and she didn’t laugh at him. She would listen and ease his mind and then tried to distract him with work or going on about a book she had read. Sometimes, George would tell her stories of Fred and him from when they were growing up. Hermione admired the twin’s relationship. She wished she had someone that understood her like that and would always be there for her.

Most of the time, she would find herself with Fred. He would greet her at the front of the store with a hug, sometimes a kiss to the forehead, and would either invite her to the back of the store, ask her to help stock, or just talk with her while he worked. Fred had finished _Matilda_ and had asked Hermione if she had any other books that he could borrow. She was surprised at first, but she suggested a few options. She also mentioned that both _Matilda_ and _Willy Wonka_ had been made into muggle films. Fred’s eyes had gone wide and he asked Hermione if there was any way they could watch them. Hermione had said she could try, and Fred picked her up and twirled her and thanked her profusely. Hermione giggled and hugged back.

Hermione and Fred were fairly surprised to find out that they had a lot in common. Both had a favorite color of purple; Hermione’s was more of a mauve while Fred’s was more of a deep purple. Both enjoyed reading books about fantasy. Both had similar taste in foods. They would share a plate of fish and chips when they would go to lunch at The Leaky Cauldron, they would share a bag of fizzing whizzbies when they were craving sweets, and their coffee order was surprisingly similar. Hermione would get an iced coffee with caramel; Fred would get an iced coffee with vanilla. Both were talented at transfiguration. When the shop was slow, they would take turns transfiguring random items to see who could get the cleverest outcomes. One time, Fred turned a pair of bunny slippers into actual bunnies, and he and Hermione had to spend an hour trying to get them back. They were tired from running around the shop, but still found themselves laughing on the floor. Hermione found herself awfully comfortable around Fred; she didn’t think about how she looked, or what her laugh sounded like, or having to always have an answer ready. She didn’t need a plan when it came to Fred. She was letting things flow naturally, and she enjoyed it that way.

Hermione had always been fascinated by their charms, but she was even more fascinated with the planning that went behind it. It turns out that Fred runs the books of the shop, so he was the one to make the final decisions on which inventions could actually be done. Hermione was impressed by the twins and how far they had come in their shop. Fred and George both told her that if she wanted to, once she graduated, she could officially be a part of their team. She told them that she would think about it. Hermione was still thinking of what to do after school was officially over.

A week before the group was scheduled to leave, Hermione was at the shop, waiting on the rest of the girls. She was wearing a blue tank top, a pair of black jeans, and some sandals. Her hair was pulled up into a messy bun on top of her head. Angelina insisted they go shopping and had begged Hermione to come with. Hermione just couldn’t say no.

“I like your hair like that,” Fred said from across the store. He was stocking the shelves of puking pastels while Hermione was stocking the Forever Flowers. He was wearing a purple polo shirt with a pair of cargo shorts. It was unbearably hot these days and everyone was dressing more casual than normal. All of them were excited that France was expected to be much cooler when they were scheduled to be there.

Hermione blushed at the compliment. “I think I do, too,” she looked over at him, “Do you plan on ever cutting your hair?”

Fred laughed and flicked his hair out of his eyes. His hair had grown long since his stay in the hospital. It was one of the tell-tale signs of which twin was which: George’s hair was cut short and Fred’s hung a little longer in his face.

“Oy, admit it, you find it charming.”

Hermione found herself really taking in his appearance. She had always known the twins were attractive, although she would never admit to it. They were similar, yes, but Hermione could see the subtle differences. Both had incredible builds from their beater years at Hogwarts, but Fred was slightly leaner. Fred’s jaw was more prominent at the sides, his cheekbones sinking in a little more. They both had laugh lines and beautiful smiles. When Fred smiled, it was small, and the laugh lines were prominent around his eyes, whereas George’s were more prominent around his mouth. And Hermione had to admit, she did like his hair a little bit longer. It made her think of muggle boy bands.

“How is it your head doesn’t explode from your massive ego?” Hermione asked.

Fred put his hand over his heart in mock hurt. “Granger, my ego is most certainly not massive,” he smirked at her, “It’s _ginormous_.” And he laughed as she rolled her eyes.

They passed the next couple of minutes in comfortable silence. Just as they were finishing their stocking, the door to the shop rang. Fred looked up to see Ginny, Luna, and Angelina. All of them were dressed similarly to Hermione; tank tops and jeans with their hair pulled up out of their faces. He watched as Hermione went over to greet all of them, and he couldn’t help but admire her natural beauty. He loved that she was starting to form laugh lines around her eyes, that her freckles were more prominent against her complexion, that her eyes shone a little bit brighter than they did a few months ago. Fred smiled thinking about how much she had grown and was _living,_ not just surviving. Ginny noticed Fred smiling and walked over to her brother.

“You fancy her.” Ginny stated rather bluntly.

Fred had the decency to blush. “And what if I do?”

“Why don’t you just tell her?”

Fred thought about all her interactions with Draco. How she hugged him, how they bantered with one another, how she seemed to know everything about him. “I think she fancies another bloke.”

Ginny wrinkled her nose up. “Who?”

“You mean you don’t know?”

Before she could answer, Hermione came up to them. “Will you be okay here in the shop without my help?” Fred could tell she was genuinely concerned.

Fred smiled at her. “Yes, Hermione, I’ll be fine here for a couple hours.” He paused. “Although, I will miss your company.” He smiled as she blushed.

“If you insist,” Hermione hugged him and gave him a quick kiss on the cheek. He watched in shocked as she walked out the door and met up with Luna and Angelina outside the shop.

“Fred, I think that you are rather daft if you think she doesn’t fancy you in the slightest,” Ginny laughed and hugged her brother. She took off with the rest of the girls.

Fred stood frozen in his spot for a few minutes. His head was spinning with what just happened. Sure, Fred had given her a few small kisses on her forehead her and there. But she hasn’t initiated the same since he had come home from the hospital. Was he wrong about her and Draco? Did he completely read her wrong? Fred was still standing there when George came out from the back and saw his twin looking utterly drained of color.

“Blimey, mate, did you see a ghost?” George asked his twin.

Fred looked at his twin. “Georgie, what do you know about Hermione and Malfoy?”

George frowned. His twin still refused to hear anything of the final battle. He wanted to try and remember on his own. George didn’t understand why he was asking about them in the first place. “I know they got rather close during the rebuilding. They seem to be great mates.”

“He hasn’t… hurt her or anything?”

“Not since we were kids, mate. Why do you ask?”

“No reason,” Fred answered offhandedly. He couldn’t tell his twin why he was bothered. The last thing he remembered before going down was seeing Hermione standing there. She had locked eyes with him and then he saw a movement off to his left. He saw Draco Malfoy running up to them, and then everything went dark.

…

Hermione was mortified at what she had just done. _It’s not like you haven’t done it before_ , she thought to herself. This was true, she had kissed him on the cheek before, but not in a while. She felt that she completely overstepped their boundaries. She hadn’t even talked to Ron, his _younger brother_ for Merlin’s sake, on what had happened with them during the final battle.

“Is something the matter, Hermione?” Luna asked.

Hermione took a deep breath and looked at the three girls sitting around her. They decided to stop for a coffee before they began shopping in muggle London. “It’s nothing,” she said, “I’m just overthinking.”

“What happened?” Angelina asked. Hermione really thought that Angelina was beautiful, with her dark skin and long dark hair. Today she was wearing a pair of light blue jeans and a yellow Holyhead Harpies tank top.

“I kissed Fred on the cheek,” she blurted. She blushed.

“So?” Ginny asked. “It’s not like he hasn’t kissed you on the forehead, I’ve seen it loads of times.”

“That doesn’t seem too bad, ‘Mione,” Luna added.

“Unless you fancy him.” Angelina stated. When she saw Hermione blush and put her head down. Angelina smiled. “You _do_ fancy him!”

Hermione blushed even harder and looked around to see if anyone was staring at them. “Yes, I do. But I don’t need the entirety of London knowing, Ange.”

She smiled sheepishly at the younger girl, “Sorry.”

“I still don’t understand,” Ginny said, “Why are you worried about kissing him on the cheek, then?”

“I still haven’t talked to Ron about what happened in the Chamber,” Hermione started slowly. She had talked to Ginny about this just a few weeks ago. Ginny was rather happy; she didn’t think her and Ron were all that compatible. “And I don’t know how Fred truly feels. I don’t want to ruin our friendship.”

Angelina had to hide her smile behind her coffee cup. She has known that Fred fancies Hermione for _years_. She had been his date to the Yule Ball for the simple fact George was too scared to ask her. She remembers the way Fred had looked at Hermione when she first entered. Angelina had confronted him, and he didn’t deny it. For the rest of the night, Fred had told her how he had always found Hermione attractive, but never said anything to her because of Ron. The only other person to know about his secret crush was George, obviously. Fred had confessed that he found her rather brilliant and smart. Angelina always told him to confess his feelings, that he never knew what could happen, but he didn’t, for his little brother. When Fred had woken up in the hospital and heard what Ron and Harry had done, he was livid. He immediately had turned to Hermione, worried she had been alone, and she had reassured him that she was okay, that she had everyone else to be there for her. Everyone could see that Fred had relaxed and softened his tone and gaze. Angelina was surprised; she had seen Fred mad before, and when his temper flares, it normally takes a while to cool him down. Hermione had done that with a few words and a touch to his hand. That’s when Angelina knew that something could be real between the two.

Angelina wasn’t the only one to hide a smile behind her coffee mug. Ginny was doing the same thing after her encounter with her brother at the shop. She could see that there was something between the two of them, but both were too scared to say anything. _Just give it some time,_ she thought. Then something that Fred had said came to her mind. Who did he think she fancied? Ginny couldn’t think of anyone else Hermione had given any attention to. She would have to keep a close eye on her best friend.

“Hermione,” Luna’s voice brought all of them out of their stupor, “I think you’re just overthinking things. Fred would tell you if he had a problem with anything you did, and you would do the same to him. You both are very close and wouldn’t lose each other over something so silly.”

Hermione considered Luna’s words. She was right, of course. She normally always was. “Thanks, Luna,” Hermione reached over to squeeze her hand.

“Of course,” Luna squeezed her hand back.

“Enough chit-chatting ladies,” Angelina suddenly got up out of her chair. “We have a ton of shopping to do.”

With that, the group of girls gathered their belongings and started out on the shopping spree of a lifetime.

…

Hermione was exhausted. They had been walking and shopping for the last three hours. All of them had gotten new bathing suits, in case Draco’s place had a pool; new sweaters, in case it was cold at night; new shoes. Hermione wasn’t exactly sure what they were looking for now. She had bought copies of _Willy Wonka_ and _Matilda_ ; she was hoping they could figure out how to get a VHS player to play them on. She also picked up more books to read in her down time. Hermione was thankful that she was able to put a shrinking charm onto her bags so that she could carry them easier. The other girls seemed to be having a great time shopping. Luna had bought some books with Hermione, a beautiful silver knit sweater, a pair of black boots that went up to her thigh, and a blue on piece swimsuit. Ginny had bought a red knit sweater, a black hooded sweatshirt, a pair of black jeans, two pairs of tall boots (one black and one a dark brown), and a red bikini. Hermione couldn’t remember what Angelina had bought. She was carrying so many bags Hermione was surprised that her arms weren’t hurting. When Hermione had brought that up, Angelina smirked at her and said, “I put a featherlight charm on my bags. It feels like carrying nothing.”

After walking for what felt like hours, Hermione was being pulled into yet another store. When she looked around, it was full of dresses, shoes, and a bunch of shining jewelry.

“Theo mentioned going to a fancy restaurant one night while we were there,” Luna said.

“Exactly!” Angelina shrieked. “I’m really hoping that George proposes there. I need to find something that works perfectly.”

As the girls all headed towards different rows of dresses, Hermione just found herself wandering. She wasn’t sure if she needed to buy a dress. She had a few that she could wear, but she wasn’t sure how fancy Theo and Draco wanted to go. Knowing them, it will be extremely fancy. She decided that she might as well look around, just in case.

“Hermione, look!” Ginny exclaimed from the other side of the store. Ginny was wearing a black, long-sleeved dress that was short in the front and long in the back. The sleeves were lace and hugged Ginny’s arms perfectly. The black made her flaming red hair stand out. Ginny felt beautiful standing in front of the mirror, twirling the dress back and forth.

“Ginny, that dress is perfect.” Hermione said. She was happy to see Ginny out and happy like she used to be. Ginny was looking at herself like she was surprised this gorgeous woman in front of her was her.

“I rather like it, too,” Luna called from next to them. Luna was wearing a floor length baby pink dress with an A-line neck and spaghetti straps. It hugged Luna’s figure perfectly and fanned out slightly past her hips. Hermione and Ginny had their jaws to the floor. They had never seen their shy friend where something so simple and beautiful.

“Luna, you look fantastic,” Ginny beamed.

“Thank you,” Luna gave her a small smile.

Next, Angelina walked out. All of the girl’s eyes turned to her. She was wearing a strapless, form-fitting red dress that flowed well past her ankles. There was a slit going up her right leg to her thigh. She had paired the dress with a pair of strappy silver heels. The dress looked amazing against her dark skin. Her long, dark hair hung over her shoulder.

“Merlin, Ange,” Hermione breathed. “If George doesn’t propose, I think I will.”

“Only if you beat me to it,” Ginny said, and all the girls laughed. They spent more time gushing over their dresses and complimenting each other and trying on different pairs of shoes. Hermione slipped away to look at the racks again. She wasn’t expecting to find anything, but then her eyes landed on something. The dress itself was rather simple. It had a sweetheart neckline and off-the-shoulder sleeves. It was figure hugging up until the hips and then it flowed freely. The silver flower design around the whole dress was beautiful, but that isn’t what caught Hermione’s attention. It was the color: a beautiful indigo. It reminded her of Fred. On a whim, Hermione pulled it off the rack and walked over to the dressing room.

Hermione zipped up the dress and looked at herself. She hadn’t felt this beautiful since the Yule Ball. She thought the color complimented her freckles perfectly, and the cut of the neckline made her chest look bigger than it actually was. She took out her hair and let it fall onto her shoulders, framing her face. Her curls had calmed down immensely in the last few months and they fell in small ringlets around her face. She loved it.

“Merlin…” someone breathed from behind her. She whirled around to see all three girls standing there with their mouths wide open. Hermione blushed.

“You have to buy that, ‘Mione,” Angelina said.

Hermione looked back at her reflection and thought about it. It _was_ a really nice dress. She could use it for many occasions, like Angelina’s wedding. She smiled at the reflection of her three friends in the mirror and nodded her head.

After that, all three girls purchased their dresses and decided to go to the Leaky Cauldron for lunch. When they got back to the Burrow, Hermione, Luna, and Ginny started packing for their trip. Hermione was nervous to pack her dress since it was so beautiful and looked fragile. Hermione took extra care packing it where it would stay safe until she needed it.

…

Draco kept pacing back and forth around the living room. It was driving Theo bonkers. He had been doing this for the last hour, and their friends were due to arrive any moment. Theo was excited for this trip to France with Draco. The last time they had gone was when they were really young, and it had been with their parents. This time, it would just be the two of them, and they would get to decide what to do. They had a whole itinerary planned for their group: they would spend the first few days exploring Metz, which is where Draco’s villa was located; they had a day planned to just spend in the villa, and the next few days after that planned to explore Paris. For their last full day there, Draco and Theo had a surprise planned. They had gotten tickets to some muggle amusement park called _Disneyland_. Neither of them had ever been to an amusement park, and they thought that it sounded like a fun adventure, especially for the twins.

“What is your _problem_ , Draco?” Theo finally huffed out. He threw himself onto one of the couches. He didn’t understand why he was so nervous.

Draco paused. He was staring at his shoes with his eyebrows knitted together. Theo couldn’t remember a time that he had been this worried. Draco looked like he was having an internal struggle, fighting himself on something. “It’s Hermione…”

Theo’s eyes widened at the use of her given name. “What about her? Did something happen?” He got up and walked over to Draco.

“She hasn’t been here… not since…” he trailed off. Draco could feel his eyes filling with tears and he was clenching his fists so hard he could feel his nails digging into his skin. That day that Hermione, Weasley, and Potter had been held at his house haunts him. He can still hear Hermione’s screams, his Aunt Bella’s wicked laugh. And he had done nothing to help. Sometimes, he’ll wake up in the middle of the night in a cold sweat and not able to go back to sleep.

Draco felt Theo’s hand fall onto his shoulder. “It’s different now, Draco,” he whispered.

After the war and his parent’s trials, Draco had the Manor rebuilt. He had kept his gardens but added flowers like roses and orchids in a variety of bright colors; he had even added some ingredients for potions he liked to have on hand and brew himself. He kept his large, white peacocks, but made sure they had their own section of the gardens to themselves. He had some portions of the Manor torn down and never rebuilt. He had the outside repainted to a light grey. He had the entire interior redone and all of his old furniture destroyed. He couldn’t stand to look at it, look at where _he_ had sat. Draco was rather happy with his new choices, along with Theo’s.

He still had his house elves, but made sure that they were well-clothed and fed. He had tried to offer some form of payment to them as well, but they had outright refused. They genuinely liked working and Draco took care of them. He told them _please_ and _thank you_. He let them have lunch breaks and gave them candy. They were part of his family now; he had grown up with all of them after all.

“I know,” Draco whispered back. He let Theo wrap his arm around his shoulders and lean his head against his. Draco took a deep breath and all he smelled was Theo: pine, mint toothpaste, and musk. He felt himself calm down. He wondered vaguely if this is what his amortentia would smell like. The sound of a doorbell brought him back to his nervous state. He watched as Theo rounded the corner towards the front door and could hear his boisterous, “Welcome!”

Draco could hear his friend’s feet shuffling as Theo gave them a rundown of the new design they settled on. Just as Draco was about to run and hide in his room so he could gather himself, his friends all rounded the corner. He stared wildly at all of them. He was starting to lose control: he could feel his muscles start to give from underneath him and could feel his eyes start to water. He didn’t want them here. He didn’t want them in a place that had caused too much pain. He didn’t want them, he didn’t want _her,_ to remember all that had happened. Draco tightened his fists, and he could feel the blood coming out from under his fingertips. He just pushed harder.

He felt someone grab onto his hand, unwrap his fingers, and laced theirs through his. He looked up and met those brown eyes he had known for years. Hermione was looking at him with a blank expression, but Draco could see the fear buried deep in her eyes. Then, she smiled at him. Draco couldn’t believe that she could smile in this house, this horrible house.

“I’m sorry, Hermione…” he said low enough for only her to hear.

“It’s okay, Draco, it’s okay,” she whispered back to him. She was holding onto his hand and rubbing small circles with her thumb. She was absolutely terrified to be here. She didn’t know what to expect, but when she first looked up at the manor, she was surprised to find it beautiful. There were flowers and hedges leading up the driveway. In the distance, she could see beautiful peacocks wandering freely. She was even more surprised to find the place painted differently. When she was here the first time, it was a deep black and had an ominous feeling coming from all around. Now, it was painted a light shade of grey that let the garden stand out. When she walked in, it wasn’t like how it used to be at all. Everything was bright and inviting. There were flower vases filled with different flowers in shades of green. The furniture was white, with different shades of grey accents. Hermione noted that it was all Slytherin colors, and she found that it rather suited the two boys.

Theo had warned Hermione that Draco was upset, but she hadn’t expected him to be this distraught. It warmed her heart knowing that he was worried and cared about her. It was rare to see this side of Draco; he blocked people out. He was used to not having anyone within his inner circle. But now he was stuck with an array of Gryffindors, and one Ravenclaw. Hermione supposed that he would have to get used to showing some emotion with this lot.

“I love what you’ve done to the place, Draco,” Luna broke the silence, “There are much less whackspurts roaming around.”

Draco chuckled and gave Hermione’s hand one final squeeze before letting go. “Yes, well, I suppose we better get to it then.”

“Exactly how are we getting to France?” Neville asked.

“The Floo, of course,” Theo said and rolled his eyes.

“Do Floo’s work that far?” George asked.

“If you know how to set them up correctly,” Draco replied. “Are you lot ready or not?”

“Oy, mate, you got to- “Fred wrapped an arm around his shoulders.

“-learn to relax a little.” George wrapped an arm around his shoulders from the other side.

“We could offer you something to help.”

“It’s a new product we’re working on.”

“Daydreaming Dum Dums!” they finished together. They held up an assortment of lollypops.

“And what, exactly, do they do?” Draco asked, immediately suspicious of the new product.

“It’s easy,” George started, “Each flavor has a different theme,”

“You suck on the lollipop, and you fall into a daydream following along with the theme you selected,” Fred finished.

“We have Adventure,”

“Becoming a Professor,”

“Exotic Escapes,”

“Romance,” both twins said with a smirk. They held up their bouquet of lollypops and waved them around in front of his face. Hermione could see that Draco was trying to hold back a smirk. He would never admit that he found the twins quite brilliant.

“How on earth do you come up with these ideas?” Ginny asked while looking at one of the lollypops.

“We owe this piece of brilliance to Hermione,” Fred said as he smiled at her. Hermione could feel herself blush. Her and Fred had come up with the idea when Hermione had walked in sucking on a Dum Dum lollypop. She was daydreaming while roaming around the store and Fred had tried for 2 minutes to get her to answer him. He wished he could have used that during Hogwarts while listening to his professors teach. From there, the idea was born.

“That’s really brilliant, Hermione,” Neville said, tentatively taking one of the Adventure lollypops.

“I’ll take this one, thank you,” Theo said while plucking one of the Romance lollypops, “Just how… _raunchy_ can these things get?” Theo smirked.

“We’re not quite sure,” George said slowly, “But why don’t you tell us?”

“Oh, I will,” Theo shoved the lollypop in his backpack and the twins laughed. Hermione could see Draco’s ears tinge pink as he rolled his eyes.

As the lollypops made their way around the group, Hermione found herself looking around the manor again. It really was beautiful. Outside of the large windows, the garden looked beautiful underneath the bright sun. She felt someone come up behind her and she turned and looked up to see Fred staring out the window with her. He looked down at her and gave a small smile.

“You doing okay, love?”

Hermione turned and looked at the garden and then back at Fred. She looped her arm through his and gave him a brilliant smile. “I am now.”

“If you lot are ready,” Draco said while walking towards one of the grand staircases, “Everything is set up. Let’s get to France.”


	4. France, Part 1

Chapter Four: France, Part I

The more Hermione walked through the Manor, the more she was amazed that this was the same place the Dark Lord had used as headquarters just a few months ago. It was like Draco was trying to rid his whole life of his past, and Hermione could understand why. She couldn’t imagine the horrors of sleeping in the same house as him and her heart clenched for her friend. She was glad he was returning to Hogwarts with her, as Head Boy, so he could get away from here for a while, away from the darkness that still lingered.

“Sir, everything is ready,” a voice said from a doorway at the end of the hallway. Hermione looked up to see a house elf. Hermione felt the rant build up in her throat, but then she looked closer at the house elf. She was dressed in a comfortable shirt and looked well fed. She was also smiling; the biggest smile had seen on a house elf since Dobby.

“Thank you, Winky,” Draco said as he knelt down in front of her. He handed her a small piece of candy that Hermione made out to be licorice. She was surprised with how well they were being treated. She smiled at Draco as he got up and she saw his cheeks turn pink.

“Miss? Miss?” Winky walked up to Hermione. Hermione knelt down in front of the small house elf.

“Yes?”

“Winky is sorry she couldn’t help you when… when…” hot tears fell from her eyes. She reached out to Hermione and Hermione wrapped her arms around her small frame.

“You have nothing to apologize for, Winky,” she told her, “Besides, who knows what would have happened if you had done anything? No, it’s much better that you stayed out of the way.”

Winky gave her a small smile. With one final sniff she turned on her heel and walked back into the room she was at. Hermione pushed herself up. Her legs threatened to give underneath her, but she felt two hands grab her arms. She turned her head to see Neville and Theo on either side of her.

“Are you alright, Hermione?” Neville asked, concern written in his expression. He had heard of what happened to Hermione here at the Manor briefly, but never the full story. He watched as they set Hermione up on her feet and she started to absentmindedly rub her left forearm. Neville knew what was under her thin sweater: her scar. He shuddered at the thought of it.

“I’ll be alright,” she said, but even Hermione could hear the uncertainty in her voice.

“Are you sure? You look pale,” Theo turned to Draco, “Mate, you got a pepper up potion? I would hate for her to be sick going through the Floo.”

“I should have one in my room. I’ll be right back.” Draco took off down the long hallway.

“Hermione, do you want to sit down, love?” Fred asked. Hermione turned her head up towards him and shook her head. She smiled weakly and leaned her head against his shoulder. He smelled of candy, Hermione assumed from the Dum Dums, gunpowder, and a hint of something else. He always smelled like gunpowder, even if he had on cologne. She liked the smell of it, it was the smell of Fred.

“Here, Granger, bottom’s up,” Draco came back holding a green potion in a small vial. Hermione gave a small thank you and took the potion. It tasted horrible and Hermione made a disgusted face.

“Hey, it’s better than puking in the Floo,” Theo laughed. “All right, everyone, line up and we’ll give you the directions.”

…

Hermione fell through the fireplace. She would have fallen if not for Draco and Theo to grab her. She went last with them so that she didn’t get sick or mess up the address. When she was finally able to, she looked around. The villa was _gorgeous_. The ceilings were high and decorated with chandeliers. The walls were a beautiful shade of burgundy and the furniture was a mixture of dark woods. They had come through a fireplace in what looked to be a sitting room. There were three couches forming a semicircle in the middle of the room with a table in the center. Everyone was looking around in awe at what they could see so far.

“Let’s give you a tour,” Theo suggested. They followed Theo out of the room. They walked down the hallway and it opened up into a joint kitchen and dining room. There were a few house elves working on preparing them lunch. Hermione smiled as she watched them dance around the kitchen, laughing and smiling. They followed Theo down another hallway. They passed a bathroom and a door leading outside to the gardens. They were just as beautiful as Hermione expected; flowers she hadn’t even heard of in colors that she didn’t know existed. At the end of the hallway, they stopped at a large door.

“This just happens to be my favorite part.” He smiled at all of them. When he pushed open the door, the whole group gasped. Behind the door was an indoor pool and spa. The pool was a huge circle. Hermione could tell that it got rather deep in the very middle. The spa was also rather large and was big enough to sit all of them comfortably.

“Wicked,” the twins commented. Neville was nodding his head in agreement.

“It’s a good thing we bought those new bathing suits,” Ginny whispered, and all of the girls agreed. Hermione looked out the floor to ceiling window and was amazed at the sight. Draco had told them that they were a little bit outside a city called Metz, and Hermione could see the buildings in the distance. She did some research before coming here, and she was excited to go to the Metz Cathedral and the museums she had read about as well.

“Don’t worry, Granger, we have everything planned out for you. We’re spending a few days exploring Metz, and a few days exploring Paris.” Draco told her as he walked up to her.

Hermione’s eyes widened, “We’re going to Paris?”

“Of course,” Draco scoffed, “Come, lunch is almost ready, and Theo and I could tell you our itinerary.”

They all made their way back to the kitchen and dining room. Hermione found herself sitting next to Fred and Luna. At each head of the table sat Theo and Draco. To Draco’s right was Fred, Hermione, Luna, and Ginny. To Draco’s left sat George, Angelina, and Neville. Draco locked eyes with Theo across the table and he gave his boyfriend a small smile. He was happy. For once in his life, Draco was truly happy. He joined in the light conversation that was happening at the table before Winky came up to them and cleared her throat.

“Lunch is served,” and with a snap of her fingers, food appeared all over the table. From what Fred could see, it was an assortment of foods they had at home and food that was native to France. He saw baguettes, smoked herring, fruit and cheese platters, different versions of beef and chicken, fish and chips, and an assortment of prepared vegetables. Everyone started piling food on their plates and the room was silent as everyone was eating.

“This is amazing, Winky, thank you,” Theo smiled at the small elf at his side.

“Can Winky bring you anything else?”

“No, Winky, that will be all for right now,” Draco said and gave her a warm smile. Winky bowed and headed back into the kitchen with the other house elves. Hermione could see that they were all around a small table, eating what they all had on their plates.

“Oy, what’s this grand plan of yours, Malfoy?” George asked after finishing a bite of his food.

“Well, everything can be arranged based on how we all feel. Draco and I really only came up with a basic list, and then we thought that you all could chime in with your opinions.” Theo answered.

“I like that,” Neville answered.

“It was very considerate of you to ask our thoughts,” Luna said. “I have never been to France, so I’m sure whatever you guys have planned will be wonderful.”

“Yeah, let’s hear it, boys,” Ginny said with a mouth full of food.

Draco smirked at her across the table, “For today, we thought we could spend it exploring the closest parts of the city. Tomorrow, we could go further into the city and see the bigger monuments, like the Cathedral and the Musée de la Cour. We also thought it would be nice to take a boat ride in La Seille.”

“Then for the next day, we thought we could spend a day here. We have the pool and a ton of land outside to play some games,” Theo interjected. “For the day after that, we would have to spend a good majority of it travelling to Paris. We thought it would be cool to take a muggle vehicle there.”

Hermione laughed. Everyone turned and looked at her. “Sorry, sorry, it’s just… have any of your actually _been_ in a muggle car?”

“Does dad’s flying car count?” Fred smiled. Hermione laughed and shook her head. “Then, no, I suppose I haven’t.”

“I have,” Neville said excitedly. “I was really small. It’s so weird.”

Just before Hermione answered, she heard the front door open. There was a shouted, “Hello?” just before Blaise Zabini rounded the corner into the dining room. He was wearing a black suit with a white dress shirt. The top few buttons were undone, and he decided to forego a tie. He had been in France on business, and Draco sent him an owl that they were going to be in the area. He hadn’t seen his childhood friends for some time, so he decided to clear his schedule so he could spend the week with them before they left for Hogwarts. Besides, they had business to take care of themselves.

“Blaise, you made it,” Theo said while getting up to give his friend a handshake. Blaise shook his head and pulled Theo in for a hug. Draco was right behind him and gave him a big squeeze. During the war, the three boys relied on each other for protection and friendship. They had formed an unbreakable bond, becoming the closest thing to brothers Draco has known.

“Blaise, I’m sure you remember Hermione,” Draco said. Hermione smiled and got up and gave Blaise a small hug.

“Blaise, how are you?”

“Doing good, Granger. Business, as usual.” He smiled at her, “Of course, seeing beautiful witches on my off time makes it bearable.”

Hermione rolled her eyes and sat back down. She noticed Fred tense in his chair. She reached over and put her hand on is thigh. When he looked over at her, he let out a long breath and she smiled at him. He smiled back.

“I’m sure you remember Neville and Ginny, as well,” Draco continued.

“Of course; how’s it going, Red? Longbottom,” he went over and shook Neville’s hand. He took Ginny’s hand and placed a kiss on the back. Ginny rolled her eyes and Hermione would swear that she saw Neville tense up.

“Still an incorrigible flirt, are we Blaise?” Ginny asked.

“Only towards absolutely stunning witches, Red,” Blaise smirked. He turned his head and locked eyes with a beautiful pair of silver ones. “Ms. Luna Lovegood, how are you?” Blaise kissed her hand as well.

“Well, thank you,” Luna replied nonchalantly. Luna seemed to be the only one unbothered by Blaise’s commentary. “How are you?”

“Fine, fine,” he replied, “You’re looking rather stunning today, Luna.”

“Thank you.”

Blaise looked shocked that Luna hadn’t even acknowledged him in the slightest. She kept her eyes on her plate of food. That intrigued Blaise. He was used to the girls at Hogwarts practically throwing themselves at him. And here he was, complimenting a gorgeous witch, and she paid him very little mind. _This trip might be interesting after all,_ Blaise thought to himself.

Once Blaise had taken his seat and got himself a plate of food, talks of what was to be done were underway. After lunch, it was decided that everyone would get shown to their rooms. Everyone would be paired up to share a room since there wasn’t enough for everyone to have their own. Draco would share with Theo, George with Fred, and Blaise with Neville. Hermione worried for Neville and Blaise for a quick second, but when she saw the two boys’ smirk at each other, she knew everything would be okay. For the girls, it was Hermione with Angelina and Ginny with Luna.

As they were making their way upstairs to their rooms to get ready, Angelina stopped Hermione on the stairs.

“’Mione?” Angelina started, “Would it be too awkward to ask if you would mind switching with George? I know everything that’s going on with you and Fred and that it might be awkward, but I really would love to spend some time with George…”

“I don’t know, Ange…” Hermione panicked at the thought. What if that was too weird? What if Fred was uncomfortable?

“ _Please,_ Hermione?”

Share a room with Fred? That was mad! But then Hermione saw the look Angelina was giving her. She was begging her to spend some time alone with her hopefully soon-to-be fiancé and Hermione knew she couldn’t say no. She took a deep breath and prepared herself for what she was about to say. She put on a smile.

“Of course.”

Angelina gave her a huge smile and a hug.

_What did I just get myself into?_

…

Hermione took a look around the room that she would call home for the next six days. The room was beautiful. There were two large beds on either side of the room with dressers on both sides. Each bed had silver sheets and more pillows than Hermione owned in her life. The walls were a clean white, and the rug was a dark grey. The bathroom had both a shower and a large bathtub. It really was beautiful and seeing how far apart the beds were made Hermione feel less nervous. She walked over to the bed on the right and sat her trunk down. She figured she might as well start unpacking and getting her bag together for tonight. While she was unpacking there was a knock at the door and then the sound of it being pushed open.

Fred couldn’t believe he let his twin convince him to switch rooms. He knew that George planned on proposing and he wanted to spend some time alone with Ange, but he didn’t want to do anything to make Hermione uncomfortable. He sheepishly walked in and breathed a sigh of relief when he saw the beds were on opposite sides of the room. He looked over to see Hermione as red as his hair and he had to hold in a chuckle. He saw that she was already unpacking and made his way over to the other bed and started to do the same thing.

“Is that bed okay?” she asked him from across the room.

“This works for me, ‘Mione,” he smiled at her. He felt relieved when she smiled back at him. “So, what did Ange do to convince you to switch rooms? George practically begged me on his knees.”

Hermione sighed, “She begged me then gave me these eyes like a hurt puppy.” They both laughed and it was like the tension and nerves completely dissolved. “Oh! I almost forgot.” Hermione started rooting through her trunk until she pulled out two, rectangular pieces of plastic. She held them up for Fred to see. His eyes widened when he read the titles.

“Are those the muggle films you were talking about?” Hermione nodded and Fred smirked at her. “How do we play them?” Hermione thought for a moment.

“Excuse me, Winky?” As soon as the name left her mouth, the house elf was at her side.

“Yes, Miss?”

“Do you think it would be possible to get a TV and a VHS played in here?”

Winky smiled, “Of course, Miss. Winky can have it ready by tonight.”

“Thank you,” Fred said and smiled at her. Winky bowed and then she was gone.

Hermione and Fred continued to get ready in comfortable silence. They had agreed to watch _Willy Wonka_ tonight when they came home from exploring. Fred was excited; not just for the movie, but to spend some time with the beautiful witch in their room.

…

George was laughing as Angelina was retelling her story of how she got Hermione to switch rooms. They both had to basically beg the other two to get them to switch. George laughed again as he heard that Hermione had fallen for Angelina’s puppy dog eyes. He had to admit, it was hard to say no to them. He told Ange how he had to almost resort to going down on his knees and begging to get Fred to switch. He was being rather stubborn about it. He told George that he didn’t want Hermione to feel uncomfortable, especially after all that happened at the Manor.

“You don’t think they’ll be too mad, do you?” Angelina finally asked as she was getting her purse ready for the night.

George thought about it for a moment. “I reckon we’ll tell this story at their wedding.” He knew that Fred was silently happy to be spending time alone with Hermione. Sure, she came by the shop most of the summer, but the two of them were never truly alone. It will be good for them. A thought came creeping back into his mind that Fred had mentioned not too long ago.

“Ange?” She gave him a small hm. “What do you know about Hermione and Malfoy?”

She scrunched up her face in confusion. “They’re best mates, along with Theo. Why do you ask?”

“Fred had mentioned something about him in the shop. He asked if Malfoy ever hurt ‘Mione.”

Angelina’s eyes widened. “Merlin’s beard, why on earth would he think that? If anything, Draco and Theo _saved_ Hermione. They were there for her when Harry and Ron weren’t. You saw how Draco was when Hermione went into the manner. That was the most emotion I have ever seen out of the boy.”

George nodded his head. He just couldn’t shake that thought. Why did his twin think that Malfoy hurt Hermione?

Angelina came up to him and put a hand up to his cheek. “They’ll be _fine_ , love. No need to worry, alright?”

“You’re right, of course.”

“Good, now c’mon, we’ll be late,” she gave him a swift kiss on the lips and went back over to her packing. George made sure she wasn’t looking, then slipped the ring box into his dresser drawer. He cast a silent _colloportus_ , locking it so his snooping girlfriend wouldn’t find it. _Soon to be fiancée,_ George smiled and started getting ready.

…

Once everyone was downstairs, Draco lead them all out the door and to a waiting carriage, much like the ones the students took to Hogsmeade. Hermione was worried that they would stand out, but Draco assured her that they were travelling through a wizarding part of Metz before entering the actual city. They would get off the carriages and finish the walk from there. Hermione felt more relaxed after that. Everyone settled into their seat, and the carriage took off towards the city. Hermione found herself admiring the view of the tall cathedrals and monuments. She was excited to walk through the buildings and read about the architecture and history.

The skyline disappeared and Hermione found herself staring at a small wizarding town much like Hogsmeade. There was a book shop, an apothecary, a candy shop, and some kind of Quidditch shop.

“We can split up from here,” Theo said. “And then meet back up by the candy shop in an hour; that’s how we get to Metz from here.”

“That sounds lovely,” Luna said and wandered towards the apothecary. Fred, Ginny, Theo, Blaise, George, and Angelina wandered towards the Quidditch shop. Hermione was surprised to see Neville start to follow.

“Are you interested in trying to play, Neville?”

“George said I had some promise as a beater,” he said and smiled sheepishly. “Blaise said he would help me find some stuff.” Hermione gave him a big smile. She was happy to see Neville trying new things and making new friends. She worried that sometimes he would go back to his shy, scared classmate.

“That sounds great, Neville. I’ll see you at the candy shop.”

She watched as he walked away. She started to make her way to the bookstore. She was surprised to see Malfoy following her. He glanced at her and raised his eyebrows. She smiled and nudged him on the shoulder. She hasn’t been able to shake what happened at the Manor out of her head. “Draco?”

“Hm?”

“I’m sorry if I made you uncomfortable at the Manor.”

Suddenly, Draco stopped. He couldn’t believe _she_ was apologizing to _him_. He couldn’t possibly understand why. “What are you on about, Granger?”

Hermione stopped and looked at him. He was looking at her like she had sprouted two heads. “I know everyone being at the Manor must have been hard, so I’m sorry if we made you uncomfortable.”

Draco looked down at his shoes. “I wasn’t so much worried about everybody else,” he started, “I was worried about you, Hermione.” She blushed at her given name. “I know you still get nightmares. I didn’t want _you_ to be uncomfortable. After everything, and I just stood there…” he took a deep breath, “It’s one of my biggest regrets and I’ll never forgive myself for it. I am so sorry…” Hermione could hear the quiver in his voice.

Hermione immediately went up to him and threw her arms around his neck. “Oh, Draco. You have nothing to apologize for. I understand now, what happened that night, and why you couldn’t help. I forgive you; I have for a while now.” Hermione could feel his shoulders relax as her gently wrapped an arm around her. She realized she had never said she had forgiven him out loud. She had assumed he knew that. But now, feeling Draco take in deep breaths to try and compose himself again, she wished she had told him a long time ago.

Draco cleared his throat, “Well, then,” he held out his arm, “Let’s get going, shall we?” Hermione smiled and looped her arm through his. “I was thinking of trying to find a book for Theo. He’s been slacking since leaving school.” Hermione laughed and started discussing what his boyfriend likes.

Hermione didn’t notice the flash of red dip into the Quidditch shop after they turned away.

…

Hermione was absolutely exhausted to say the least. After they finished exploring in the village, the group made their way into muggle Metz. It was brilliant. There were coffee shops with beautiful bouquets of flowers and fresh bread outside. The stores were full of beautiful sweaters and shirts made out of luxurious fabrics. There were people outside on the streets painting couples or the skyline. Their group spent hours walking around, admiring all of the new sights. Hermione helped Fred pick out some souvenirs for Lee and Felicity, as a thank you for watching the shop for so long. Her and Fred went and picked up some coffee and sweets and then spent the day staying close to each other. Hermione had a wonderful time, but now that they were back home, she wanted to sit down. As soon as they walked into the villa, she threw herself face first onto the couch in the sitting room. She felt someone join her on the opposite side and peeked out to see Luna sitting down. Ginny and Angelina came in behind her.

“Today was _amazing_ ,” Ginny said as she sat down. She had bought some new Quidditch gear and some stuff to take home for her mum. She spent most of her day talking with Neville. Neville was easy for her to talk to; he had been the one to convince her to start getting out of her room and help with the rebuilding. He made her laugh when she needed it. He let her vent when she was mad. He offered advice after she had calmed down. She had always been friends with her fellow Gryffindor, but she got closer to him this last summer.

Angelina dropped her hoard of bags. “Yes, it was, but I don’t think I can look at another boutique.” All the girls laughed.

“What did you get, Luna?” Hermione asked.

Luna looked at her shopping bags. “I bought some stuff for my dad, he likes to tinker with muggle things,” she started, “And I bought some food for thestrals at the apothecary for when we go back to Hogwarts.”

“That sounds awesome, Luna. Can I help when we get back to school?” Ginny asked.

“The thestrals would love that.”

The girls sat in a comfortable silence for a few minutes until some of the boys came downstairs. They were all dressed in swimming trunks.

“Ladies, would you care to join us in the spa?” Blaise asked with his charming smile. He was looking at Luna, who was staring off into space as if she was thinking.

“ _Yes_!” Angelina sighed and took off upstairs to change into her swimsuit. Ginny looked over at Neville who was giving her a sheepish smile and held up a second towel, telling her it was hers if she wanted it. She gave him a huge smile.

“Let me go get ready.”

Luna started gathering her stuff together, but she still hadn’t given an answer. Blaise tried again. “Luna? Would you like to join?”

She looked at him for the first time since he came. Her eyes were a deep shade of silver, sparkling when the light hit them, and Blaise found he couldn’t really look away. “Yes, I think I will,” she answered and walked past him. Blaise watched as she disappeared up the stairs.

“And all that’s left is…” Theo said and glanced over towards Hermione. She was still lying face first on the couch, and Theo chuckled. “Hermione?” He listened as she sighed into the cushion. She rolled halfway over and looked up at all of them.

“Where’s Fred?”

George flinched and grimaced. “He said that his head was starting to hurt and went to lie down.”

Hermione’s breath caught in her throat. He hasn’t complained about a headache in a while. Hermione could feel her breathing becoming erratic. She felt a hand on her back and looked over to see Theo.

“He’ll be okay, ‘Mione,” he said quietly. Hermione took a deep breath. This is why she loved Theo. He was their calming presence. He could get sarcastic and raunchy at times, but she found herself laughing with him. She gave him a small smile and got up.

“I think I’ll skip the spa today,” she made her way towards the stairs.

“Don’t have _too_ much fun taking care of him, young lady,” Theo called out behind her. She was glad no one was around to see her face flush as the other boys chuckled. She finished climbing the stairs, making it a point to go slower than what she wanted. She finally reached their bedroom door. She gave a small knock and then pushed it open. She walked in to see Fred lying on his bed with an arm slung over his eyes. He looked to be asleep. She gently closed the door and shut out the lights and made her way to her bed. She went slowly so she wouldn’t hit anything that might wake up Fred. She made it to her dresser, and she felt around until she grabbed her wand. “ _Lumos_ ,” she whispered, and the tip of her wand glowed. She gathered her stuff to change for bed and started making her way toward the bathroom.

“Don’t you know wordless magic?” Hermione dropped everything in her hand and whipped her head towards the sound. Fred was sitting up in bed, smirking at her.

“Frederick Gideon Weasley!” she called. She could feel the heat creep up her neck to her cheeks. She had to take a moment to calm her breathing. She didn’t like to be snuck up on.

“I’m sorry, I’m sorry,” Fred held up his hands in surrender. He got up to turn the lights on then walked over to help Hermione pick up her stuff. He saw the flash of fear in her eyes before she saw him and instantly regretted scaring her. Years of war and watching your back have taken their toll on her. “Seriously, love, I’m sorry,” he cupped her chin so he could look at her. He wanted her to see that he meant it.

She smiled at him. “It’s okay. I’m sorry I woke you.”

“I wasn’t really asleep, I was just resting,” Fred said and handed her her small pile of clothes. He tried not to notice the lacy black knickers and bra tucked underneath her shirt.

“George said you had a headache, are you alright?” she looked at him with concern.

“I’m fine, I was kind of hoping…” Fred scratched the back of his neck. “I was hoping you would come up here and we could watch the film,” he finished in a rush.

It took Hermione a moment to figure out what he said. It finally clicked, and she gave a huge smile. “Let’s get changed and then we can put it on.” Fred smiled and turned towards his bed while Hermione turned towards the bathroom. They both got ready rather quickly and Hermione set up the TV and VHS played. They put it at the foot of Hermione’s bed and were lying on Fred’s bed. She started the film and then went to get comfortable under the covers. Somewhere towards the middle of the movie, Hermione could feel her eyelids get heavy and starting to close. She was surprised how easily sleep was coming; the last few months she would have to force herself to sleep. She felt her body being pulled down and a pillow being placed under her head. “Night, ‘Mione,” she heard Fred whisper.

“Night, Freddie,” she replied and then she was asleep.


	5. France, Part II

Chapter Five: France, Part II

Hermione woke up feeling the best she had in a long time. She looked around and was surprised to find that she wasn’t in her bed at the Burrow. The clock told her it was about 6:00 in the morning. The sun was starting to creep into the large window. She was trying to remember where she was when she heard movement next to her and she looked over. Fred was lying on his stomach with his head towards her. She looked at the foot of the bed and saw the static screen from the end of the VHS. She smiled. Yes, she was in France with her closest friends, exploring the beautiful country. She calmed her erratic nerves that started to bubble up inside. It had been a while since she slept so long and so well. She turned towards Fred and looked at him. She could see his freckles against his pale skin, his famous Weasley red hair falling in front of his eyes. She yawned and could feel the lull of sleep threatening to take her. Hermione was vaguely aware that she should go to her own bed, but sleep took over before the thought could fully process.

…

At 8:30 on the dot, Theo went barging into Fred and Hermione’s room.

“Wake up, sleepy heads, we have so much to do and so little time!” He walked over to the bed on the right side and was surprised to find it empty. He listened for the shower, but all he could hear was music on repeat. He finally noticed the TV. It was on with the volume very low. It was against the foot of one bed, facing the bed on the other side of the room. Theo looked over and smirked at what he saw.

“Well, well, well, what do we have here?”

Fred and Hermione were on the same bed. Both were lying on their stomach, facing each other. Their hands were almost touching. From what Theo could see, both were fully clothed underneath the sheets. _How disappointing…_ he thought to himself. He took out a small disposable camera from his pocket. Hermione had taught him how to use it, and he wanted to take as many pictures as possible. He snapped a quick picture and then jumped in between the two sleeping lovebirds.

Fred groaned at the sudden movement. He slowly opened his eyes to find a grinning Theo. His deep brown eyes were glinting mischievously, and Fred couldn’t possibly understand why. Then, there was a small screech from the other side of the bed. Fred got up and looked over to see Hermione glaring at Theo and him giving her a loving smile.

“Morning,” Theo chirped.

“Theo what on ear- “Draco stopped so he could process the scene in front of him. Fred was leaning against the backboard, Theo was lying next to him with a shit-eating grin, and Hermione was sitting up about ready to kill Draco’s loving boyfriend. Draco sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose. “Theo, it’s time to let these two get ready. Come on.”

“But _Draco_ , I was just trying to wake these two lo- “

“Now, Theo.” Draco said and gave his boyfriend a glare. Theo sighed and jumped out of the bed. He stepped out into the hallway, and turned toward Fred and Hermione, “Breakfast will be ready soon, then we’ll be heading into the city.” With that, he closed the door and joined his boyfriend in the hallway. Theo opened his mouth to apologize when Draco pulled him close and said, “Tell me _everything_.” The two boys headed for the stairs, Theo talking animatedly the whole way.

On the other side of the door, Fred and Hermione stared at each other, a little embarrassed. Fred broke the silence. “I’m sorry, Hermione.”

She was confused. “For what?”

“I should have taken you over to your bed. I just didn’t want to wake you up. I reckon that you’re a pretty light sleeper.”

Hermione smiled at him. “It’s okay, Freddie. I’m sorry for taking up space in your bed.”

“Please, I had a beautiful witch in my bed. No need to apologize.” Fred smirked as her cheeks went red. She reached over and punched him on the shoulder. “Oy, ‘Mione. You training in some kind of fight club?” He rubbed his shoulder in mock pain.

She rolled her eyes at him. “You git. Let’s get ready.”

…

A few hours later, the group sat themselves at a little café outside of the Metz Cathedral. The building itself was beautiful. It was huge and the outside was a goldish-bronze color. There were intricate designs all around the building with huge windows. Hermione was even more floored by the inside. The stained-glass windows created designs along the floor, and it was _huge_. Hermione thought it looked big on the outside, but it did not do the inside justice. It was quiet as they walked through, just admiring how everything looked. They all felt that if they talked, it would ruin the ambience that was surrounding them. Hermione found someone outside that was able to tell her the history of the cathedral. The Metz Cathedral is also known as the Cathedral of Saint Stephen and built in 1550. It’s built with Jaumont Stone and sits 289 feet high and 446 feet wide. Hermione was reading one of the pamphlets that the nice man had given her when Theo came up to her.

“Are you enjoying yourself, Hermione?” he asked as he handed her a pastry.

She glared at him and snatched the pastry from his hands. “Yes, but that still does not excuse what happened this morning.”

“I said I was sorry,” Theo grumbled. He was right, Hermione realized. She sighed. She hated when Theo was right.

“Fine, I forgive you,” she suddenly found herself being crushed by Theo’s arms wrapped around her head.

“I knew you couldn’t stay mad at me! You love me too much!” and he kissed the top of her head. Hermione laughed and swatted him away. She would never understand how someone with Theo’s personality ended up in Slytherin. He seemed more Hufflepuff to her.

“Oh, she finally forgave you, did she?” Draco sauntered up to them, holding out a cup of coffee for her. She smiled at him and took a sip. “So, Granger, how did you end up in Weasley’s bed?” Hermione almost choked on her drink. She felt her neck and cheeks go warm.

“Don’t say it like that!” she yelled quietly at him. “We fell asleep watching a film. That’s all.”

“If you say so, ‘Mione,” Theo smirked at her. She looked over to see Draco giving her one, as well. She rolled her eyes at the both of them. “But seriously, are you having a good time?”

“Absolutely,” she said. “Everything here is full of history and is absolutely brilliant. And I get a chance to spend some time with everyone before we go back to normal.”

“You make it sound like we’re never going to see each other,” Draco drawled.

Hermione thought for a second. “It’s not that. It’s just we will all have to go back to our normal lives, doing normal everyday things. When will be the next time we can do something like this?” She frowned as it dawned on her that this might be the last time they were together like this for a while.

“We’ll think of something,” Theo said and squeezed her hand. “But for now, let’s enjoy the time that we’re having.”

“Theo’s right,” Draco said, squeezing her other hand. “Even though that seems hard to believe.” They all laughed.

“Oy!” Theo called out to their group, “Let’s get a picture!” He pulled out his camera and held it in his hand. He extended out his arm. Everyone squished in so that they could fit, and Hermione was laughing as the shot was taken.

…

At the end of the day, the group found themselves sitting in the main room once more. Everyone was silent after the long day that they had. Blaise looked over and saw Luna with her feet in Ginny’s lap and using Hermione as a pillow. He tried to talk to her all day, but she seemed more interested in the Cathedral and the Museum. When Draco had mentioned this was her first time in France, Blaise used that to his advantage. He started spouting off a few facts that he knew about a building or a painting she saw. Before he knew it, she was asking him how he knew so much. He admitted to her that they came to France a lot when he was younger. He found himself divulging more than he intended with her; he told her about his mother constantly jumping from husband to husband, how he found comfort in France because it was when his mom was her normal self, how he had come here a lot during the war to find a sense of peace. She just gave him a soft smile and told him about her family. Blaise found himself wanting to know more.

Neville was looking at the beautiful witch sitting next to him on the couch. He had always had a small crush on Ginny, and he spent weeks trying to convince Ginny to come out of her room. He missed her smile, her laugh, her jokes. He was happy to see that she was starting to be more of herself after Harry had abandoned her. Neville felt the anger rise in his throat. He hated thinking how much Harry had hurt her, after all she’d done for him. Suddenly, Neville felt a weight on his shoulder, and he saw that Ginny had dozed off and was leaning against him. The anger in his throat dissipated. He smiled and stilled so she wouldn’t wake up.

Theo was starting to nod off on the couch and he desperately wanted to lean his head on Draco’s shoulder. He wished that they could just tell everyone about them. Theo wanted to shout it to the world. But Draco was worried what everyone would think. Not necessarily their group; Hermione knew, and she supported them to the fullest. No, he was worried what everyone on the outside would think. Did he _imperio_ him? Did he force him to do this? Was this all for positive publicity? Draco didn’t want anyone to think poorly of Theo. He found it sweet that he cared so much, but also sad that they couldn’t be with who they wanted to.

“I say that we all go to sleep and sleep in tomorrow,” Angelina said. It was only 9:30, but they had been up early and spent the majority of the day on their feet. Angelina felt herself closing her eyes and leaning on George’s shoulder. He yawned.

“I second that motion.”

“Tomorrow is going to be spent here anyway, right?” Ginny whispered as to not wake Luna, “That sounds like a good plan to me.”

“Okay then, it’s settled. I’ll tell the house elves to have more of a brunch set up tomorrow.” Draco pushed himself up and started towards the kitchens. As he turned towards the back pantry, he felt a hand reach for his and intwine their fingers. He looked at Theo and gave him a small smile. Theo returned it and leaned in to give him a peck on the lips. Draco blushed. They made their way towards the pantry.

“I think I’ll need some help getting Luna upstairs,” Ginny looked at the snoring blonde in Hermione’s lap.

“Here, let me,” Blaise got up and crossed the room. He lifted Luna up bridal style. Ginny eyed him warily but led him upstairs to their room. Neville followed soon after and that left Hermione, the twins, and Angelina.

“Did you enjoy yourself today, Hermione?” George asked.

Hermione smiled. “it was brilliant,”

“Good. You deserved the break. Come on, Ange. You look like you’re about to pass out on the couch.” George helped her to her feet and held her hand while he led her up to their room.

“And then there were two,” Fred said. “Do you want to watch _Matilda_?”

Hermione nodded and together they made their way up the stairs and to their room. Much like the night before, they got ready and made themselves comfortable on Fred’s bed. Hermione got underneath the covers and leaned against the headboard. Fred copied her and Hermione noticed that he didn’t have his shirt on. She blushed and just turned her attention back to the film. In the middle of the movie, Fred cleared his throat.

“’Mione?”

“Hm?”

“Do you have feelings for…” he seemed uneasy finishing his question. Hermione felt her heart race; she didn’t know what she would say if he asked about himself. “Do you have feelings for Malfoy?” he finally rushed out.

Hermione relaxed and then she burst out laughing. Fred was joking, obviously. It was absurd to think that. But when she looked at him, he was staring at her with thin lips and no mirth in his gaze. “Oh, you’re serious,” she whispered. She was confused. “What made you think that?”

“Well, you two got close over the summer, obviously, and I reckoned that there was a reason for that other than, well, my idiot brother and Harry leaving.”

“Well…” Hermione started. She didn’t know what to tell Fred. There were so many things she _couldn’t_ tell him. She settled for the simple truth. “Draco and I settled our differences and discovered we have some things in common. Him and Theo were there during the summer with the rebuilding and staying at the Burrow. Your mum basically adopted them as her own.” She chuckled as Fred rolled his eyes, “Draco has done a lot for everyone since the war ended. He’s a really good bloke, but, no, I do not have feelings for him.” She paused and then said, “Him and Theo are probably my best mates now.”

Fred let out a breath he hadn’t realized he’d been holding. He knew Hermione well enough to know she wouldn’t lie. He felt his nerves calm down. Then he knit his eyebrows together.

“Best mates? What about Georgie and me?”

Hermione laughed. “Besides you two, of course. George is more like a brother, though.”

Fred smiled when she didn’t say the same thing about him. They both turned their attention back to the film and Fred decided to take a chance. He scooted closer and put his arm around Hermione’s shoulders. He felt her stiffen. Before he could ask if this was okay, she relaxed and leaned against him. The two fell asleep before the movie finished, happy with where they were at.

The door shut quietly behind Theo as he turned to the rest of the group. At first it was just Draco and Theo spying, but then George caught them trying to listen through the door. Then Blaise came out and wanted to know what was going on. Once Blaise had said that, Neville came out of the room and was surprised to see them all leaning on the floor against the door. Neville asked George if he had an extendable ear. From then, they had been using the twin’s invention until they heard silence. They had voted Theo to peek in and he was glad he was the person to do it. He snapped a quick picture without the flash.

“Well?” George asked.

“I can’t wait to show them this at their wedding,” Theo said with a smirk.

…

Fred stirred in his sleep and winced in pain. He had the worst kink in his neck. His nose was also extremely itchy. He opened his eyes and he realized he was still sitting up in bed with the TV running. He looked over and saw that Hermione was still comfortably tucked underneath his arm. He debated with himself but decided that he would rather not wake up later on with a sore upper body. He was sure Hermione would appreciate it as well. He gently removed his arm from underneath her head and then gently pulled her down to pillow. Fred stilled as Hermione mumbled something in her sleep then relaxed again. He got up to switch off the TV and crawled back under the covers. He looked at the sleeping witch beside him. She was absolutely beautiful like this, hair askew, freckles prominent, relaxed. Fred realized he could stare at her forever and find new things that he loved about her. He got comfortable again and before sleep overtook him, he mumbled, “Night, love.”

…

Everyone stayed true to their word and didn’t get up until 10:00 the next morning. They enjoyed a wonderful brunch made by Winky and her fellow house elves. Draco gave them the rest of the day off, so they had the whole of the villa to themselves. The group decided that they wanted to play some Quidditch before it got to late. Hermione and Luna decided to use this time to read some of the books they had brought with them. This is where Hermione found herself now, sitting in the garden with Luna, and reading her books. They would exchange a few comments here and there about what they were reading, but other than that, they sat in comfortable silence.

Luna was debating on asking Hermione about Blaise. She got to know him a little more yesterday, but she didn’t know much about him. She knew Hermione had been with him at the rebuilding and she was hoping her friend could shed some light on the mysterious personality of Blaise Zabini. Just as she was about to ask, the rest of the group came into the garden. They all looked tired and sore from their match. Luna put Blaise to the back of her mind and set her book down. Before she could get up, she felt a hand tuck a piece of hair behind her ear. She looked up to see Blaise giving her a dashing smile and he put a silver rose in her hair.

“A beautiful flower for a beautiful witch,” he told her in his charming voice.

She smiled up at him. “Thank you, Blaise.”

“We were thinking about jumping in the pool,” Neville told the two girls, “Did you want to join?” Hermione and Luna both agreed, and everyone went to go get ready. Hermione ruffled through her bag for her swimsuit and finally found it tucked underneath her dress. She made a mental note to ask Theo about dinner while they were in the pool. She looked down at the black two-piece she let Ginny convince her to buy. She was embarrassed to put it on, but she didn’t have anything else, and the pool really did sound fun. Finally, she decided to choke her embarrassment down and walked into the bathroom to change.

Fred walked into the room and saw that Hermione was already in the bathroom changing. He decided to quickly change while she was in there. He quickly ruffled through his bag and pulled out his purple swim trunks. He yanked his shorts and boxers down and quickly put on his trunks. Just as he started tying them up, Hermione walked out, and Fred stilled. Hermione was wearing a _bikini_ , an all-black number that hugged her curves perfectly. She had thrown her hair up into a bun, giving Fred a view of the few freckles that led down her shoulders. Her dark complexion faded a bit in the winter, but she was still an even olive tone. He watched as Hermione blushed.

“Blimey, love…” he couldn’t think of how to convey how extraordinary she looked. He decided to go for the more straightforward method, “You’re going to have all the blokes checking you out.”

Hermione blushed harder at Fred’s comment. That’s exactly what she was worried about, everyone staring at her. She looked over at Fred as he was tying his trunks. His chest was scattered with freckles and various scars, no doubt from his and George’s inventions. She found herself lingering on his toned chest and the thin sheen of sweat left over from their Quidditch match. Fred looked up to see Hermione staring at him, and he gave her a smirk. She looked away and felt her face flush even more.

“Seriously, ‘Mione, you have nothing to worry about,” Fred said and crossed the room over to her. He wrapped his arms around her shoulders and rested his chin on her head. “I’ll throw any of those gits out on their arse if they try anything,” She tensed up at first, but then laughed at his comment and wrapped her arms around his waist. He felt her take a deep breath and it tickled his neck when she let it out.

“Let’s go join the others,” Hermione finally pulled away. She laughed again as Fred held out his arm to her. She took it and followed him downstairs.

…

“I really don’t want to go back to school,” Ginny sighed and turned over on her towel. They had been in the pool going on two hours. Her, Hermione, Angelina, Luna, and Theo decided to sit out for a little bit while everyone else was trying to see who could get the biggest splash jumping into the pool.

“At least you’ll be going back as a seventh year,” Theo scoffed, “We’ll be _eighth_ years. As if it wasn’t bad enough going back, now we just sound like a bunch of dropouts.”

Luna laid her hand on his arm, “It’ll be okay. No one sees you as dropouts.”

“Besides, who will see Hermione Granger as a _dropout_?” Angelina piped up. Everyone laughed, but Hermione felt uncomfortable. Theo was right, everyone would be looking at them differently when they went back to school. They would be staring, remembering her as The Chosen One’s best friend, the brains behind the defeat of Voldemort. She was worried the Slytherins wouldn’t be remembered so kindly, even though they had fought for their side in the end.

“Oy, I know that look,” Theo pointed his finger at Hermione. He caught her staring at him with worry written in her features. “You will not be worried about Draco and me. We can handle ourselves, thank you very much.”

“I know, I know,” Hermione rolled her eyes, “It’ll all just be so different at Hogwarts this year. A lot of people aren’t coming back…”

Everyone knew who she was talking about. McGonagall had sent out owls to Harry and Ron, but they came back unopened. Her owl hadn’t been able to find them. Hermione couldn’t understand where the two boys had gone off to. Charlie had been keeping his eyes and ears out in Romania in case they went that far, but he hadn’t heard anything. Bill kept his ears open at the French ministry, and Percy kept his open at the British ministry.

“Different can be a good thing,” Luna said suddenly. Everyone turned to look at her. “We’re all growing up, changing. Different is good. It means things can finally move on.”

With Luna’s statement, they all sat in silence, letting her words sink in. Hermione looked around at all her friends, and realized Luna was right. They were all different; a few years ago, the thought of befriending one Slytherin seemed ridiculous, now Hermione had three of them; Angelina would soon be a Weasley; Fred and George’s business was doing better than ever, and they expected to expand to Hogsmeade soon; and Hermione was no longer just one-third of the Golden Trio. She had made new friends, and she couldn’t be happier than she was right now.

“Oh, Theo?” Hermione suddenly asked. He looked at her and raised his eyebrows. “Did we plan on going to some fancy restaurant while we were here?”

“We had thought about it, but never made full plans. Why?”

“We should go tonight. While everyone is rested, and we have time to get ready.”

“Good idea,” Theo turned towards the pool, “You lot better start getting ready, we’re going out tonight!” All the boys in the pool turned to look at Theo in confusion.

“What are you on about?” George asked.

“I mean you lot better start getting ready if you want to look decent tonight for dinner.”

“We’re going to dinner?” Draco asked as he ran a towel over his head. Theo had to resist the urge to run his hands through his boyfriend’s wet hair. He cleared his throat.

“Yes, Hermione thought it would be a good idea, and I agree.”

“We do too,” Luna, Ginny, and Angelina said at once.

“Alright then, let me tell the house elves we’ll be leaving,” Draco said and walked off.

“Let’s go girls! We got some prepping to do!” Angelina dragged Hermione up by her wrist and was whisked away with the others.

All the girls met upstairs in Angelina’s room after getting their stuff from their respective rooms. Angelina was pushing George out when they got there.

“Ange, I just need to grab my shoes, love,” George was laughing as he reached down to grab his dress shoes. “Ladies,” he greeted, then whispered, “Good luck,” before he stepped out and headed over to Fred’s room to finish getting ready.

“Okay, I have a shower schedule, a makeup schedule and hair schedule. We’ll start off with…” One by one, all of the girls listened to Angelina to shower and get their hair and makeup done. Ginny decided to put her hair up into a high ponytail. Hermione noticed a small horse necklace hanging around her neck and recognized it as the present Neville had given her for her birthday not so long ago. Hermione grinned at her friend and Ginny blushed and rolled her eyes. Ginny’s makeup was rather simple: some blush on her cheeks, a natural eye makeup, and a bright red lip. When Ginny was done getting ready, she helped Hermione with her hair. They put in some Sleakeazy potion to tame her curls. They let the curls fall naturally unto her shoulders. Hermione wore some light blush and mascara but left her lips alone. She liked her natural look. She gently put on her dress and heels. She looked in the mirror and was pleased to find she loved how she looked.

“You look lovely, Hermione,” Luna appeared over her shoulder. Luna’s makeup was similar to Hermione’s, except Luna decided to wear a dark shade of pink lipstick. Her hair was down, and one side was pinned back. She had the rose that Blaise had given her tucked behind her ear. Her pink dress looked amazing on her and she had it paired with some silver heels.

“And you as well, Luna,” she smiled at her friend’s reflection. Ginny came up and stood on her other side with her black dress and black heels. Ginny looked edgy and sophisticated; a look Hermione could never pull off. She looked at the three of their reflections and an image of them back in their fourth and fifth years in their school uniforms flashed in her mind. She couldn’t believe this was them now.

“Okay, how do I look?” Angelina walked out of the bathroom. She had her long, black hair curled and in a half-up, half-down style. Her red dress hugged her curves perfectly and the silver heels pulled the whole look together. She had gone with a small, winged eyeliner, mascara, and a dark red lipstick. She was wearing the silver heart necklace George had given her when they first started dating. Her dark skin was smooth and unblemished, and Hermione found herself envious of her looks yet again.

“You look beautiful as always, Ange,” Ginny smiled at her soon-to-be-sister-in-law. All the girls took one final look in the mirror and headed down the stairs.

Fred fidgeted with his tie as he waited with the rest of the bloke’s downstairs. He was dressed in a white dress shirt and black dress pants. He fixed his dark purple tie and pulled on his black blazer. He had his suit fitted right before he came and he was glad that he did, or else his jacket would have been consuming him.

Most of the other boys had the same look as he. Draco and Theo were matching in all black numbers: black pants, black shirt, black tie, black jacket. The only difference between them was that Draco had a green lapel and Theo’s was silver. Draco had his blonde hair slicked back how it used to be in school but this time it suited him much better. Blaise was wearing a black jacket and pants with a white dress shirt. Much like when he first arrived, his top buttons were undone, and he decided to forego the tie. Neville was in a classic suit and black tie. He looked much older and confident than Fred had ever seen him. His twin was dressed similarly to him, but his tie was red rather than purple. George normally wore an orange tie, but Angelina had told him that her dress was red, and he wanted to match her.

Just as Fred was starting to get bored waiting, the girls started to descend the stairs. Luna was dressed in a baby pink number that Fred thought suited her well. She looked great, in a sisterly kind of way.

“Milady,” Blaise said as he held his arm out for her. Fred was surprised as Luna took it and followed him to the rest of the group.

Next down was Ginny and Fred couldn’t help but smile. He knew his little sister was struggling these last couple of months, but the smile she wore tonight was bright and happy. He couldn’t help but feel a little protective when he saw Neville walk over and offer his arm. She flashed him and George a look as she took it.

Angelina came down next and Fred could swear his twin’s eyes were going to pop out of his head. He chuckled as he elbowed his twin lightly on the ribs. George shut his mouth and composed himself as he made his way towards his girlfriend. Fred couldn’t wait to call Ange, one of his best mates, his sister-in-law.

Last came Hermione. Fred could feel his mouth go dry and his eyes go as wide as his brother’s. Hermione was wearing a dark purple dress with silver designs. He realized that the purple matched his tie perfectly. Her hair fell in perfect curls around her shoulders. Fred was happy that she decided to go light on her makeup. She didn’t need it. _She’s perfect_ , Fred thought. A loud cough brought him out of his stupor, and he was surprised to see Draco incline his head towards Hermione. Fred shrugged off his confusion and made his way over to his beautiful witch.

“’Mione,” Fred offered his hand. Hermione smiled and gently place her hand in his. He kissed the back of her hand and didn’t let go as he led her to the rest of the group.

“Theo, please tell me you have your camera,” Angelina turned to look at the Slytherin.

Theo pulled his disposable camera out of his jacket pocket. Angelina brightened up, “Perfect! We need a group picture and a girl’s picture.”

The whole group sighed but took the pictures anyway. All of them were hoping to get copies of the pictures, to remember this moment where they were all together. The whole group smiled picture after picture, even Blaise and Draco. Then the carriages whisked them off to a restaurant and they spent the whole night talking and eating delicious food.


	6. France, Part III

Chapter Six: France, Part III

“This is most certainly a death trap,” Blaise said eyeballing what Hermione had deemed a _van_. It was a black piece of metal with glass windows and tires made out of rubber. The inside had three rows of seats made out of leather. The front had some kind of strange wheel and Hermione had to explain that was how the driver controlled the vehicle. “Let me get this straight, Granger. You’re not scared of being trapped in a small, moving piece of metal, but flying a broomstick sends you off the handle?”

“Driving a car has much more stability than being on a broomstick in the air,” she answered with her chin in the air.

“You’re mad, you are,” Blaise mumbled.

“Enough chit-chat,” Draco said. It was 6:30 in the morning. They had all gotten back last night pretty early and decided to leave this morning early for Paris. It was a three-and-a-half-hour car ride from the villa. Draco planned on sleeping the whole ride there and just wanted to get a move on everything.

Fred walked up to Hermione, “Sit with me?” She nodded her head and they both climbed into the back of the first van. Behind them came Draco and Theo, Draco took the seat closest to the window and Theo sat in the middle. In front, next to the driver, sat Blaise and Luna sat next to Theo. In the car behind them, Ginny and Neville sat in the back and George and Angelina sat in the middle rows. They started moving, and in the first 5 minutes, Draco fell asleep with his head against the window.

“How does he do that?” Blaise said, messing with the buttons to the window. “I feel like I’m going to be sick.”

“Keep your eyes on the horizon,” Hermione told him. Everyone in the car looked at her with confusion. “It helps with motion sickness, keeping your gaze on something that isn’t moving.”

Blaise turned and stared out in front of him. Within a few minutes, he could feel his stomach start to relax and his nerves ease. He started to doze off and leaned his head on the window.

Hermione reached into her bag and pulled out her CD player. This was one muggle device she refused to give up. She listened to music on it all the time; it reminded her of being home. She hadn’t seen her parents since she obliviated their memories. She had wanted to track them down and give them back their memories, but she realized what a great time they were having in Australia. She watched her parents laugh and smile, and she decided to leave them be. She had been devastated at first, thinking she had made the wrong decisions. But then she thought about what could have gone wrong giving them their memories back. There were too many variables, and Hermione realized them not knowing about her was better than them permanently staying at St. Mungo’s.

The only person to know about her parents was Fred. She had admitted to what she had done while he was in the hospital and he had asked about them. Hermione checked up on them every once and a while, and she was happy with that.

“What is that?” Fred asked from beside her.

“It’s a CD player, a device that plays muggle music,” she handed him one of her earbuds, “Put this in your ear.” Once he did, Hermione put hers in and pressed play. The song _Truly, Madly, Deeply_ by Savage Garden came on. Hermione started humming the tune. Her mum used to walk around the kitchen, singing this before her dad would come home. She loved American music, and her dad couldn’t stand it. Hermione took after her mum and loved American pop music. Sometimes, her and her mum would be singing and dancing in the kitchen and her dad would come home and join them. The memory brought a smile to her face. The song ended and Fred looked over at her.

“I like this,” he said and took the CD player from her hand. “I wonder if there is a way to add magic…” he mumbled. The intro for _Smells Like Teen Spirit_ started and Hermione looked over at Fred.

“You’ll like this one,” she smiled. He cocked his head to the side, listening, then started bobbing his head. He turned and gave Hermione the biggest grin she had ever seen. For the rest of the ride, they listened to music and discussed how they could possibly make a CD player for the wizarding world.

…

Neville took in the sight before him. They decided to take boat rides along the Seine river. He could see the Eiffel Tower from his boat, standing high above the rest of the skyline. Their group had already seen the monument but wanted to go back when it got dark so that they could see the lights. The skyline was brilliant, but Neville found himself staring at the beautiful witch beside him. Ginny was wearing a black sweater with jeans and long black boots. She left her hair down today, letting it flow freely down her back. Neville was happy to see that she was still wearing the gold horse necklace he had gotten her for her birthday. Neville was surprised that she had agreed to come with him. Ginny seemed to be lost in thought, staring out at the skyline.

“Penny for your thoughts?” Neville asked. Ginny turned towards him and her deep brown eyes looked rather sad.

“I was just thinking how I wasted so much time being sad when I could have been spending time with you all,” Ginny said. Neville realized that Ginny was the type of person to not beat around the bush; she spoke what she meant, and Neville admired that about her.

“You’re here with us now,” he reached over and squeezed her hand, “That’s all that matters.” Neville was surprised that Ginny squeezed his hand back and held on. He met her eyes and smiled. She smiled back and they continued their ride in relaxing silence.

In a boat a little way behind them, Theo was losing his mind. Draco had been quiet this whole boat ride. He had been staring off into the skyline, lost in thought. It bothered Theo to no end.

“Oy, Draco, what are you thinking about? The silence is driving me nuts,” Theo finally asked. Draco snapped out of his trance and turned to look at him.

“What are you on about?” Draco asked.

“You’ve been quiet this whole boat ride, not even bothering to shut me up when I was prattling on and on about Blaise and Luna and how _weird_ that is. The silence is driving me up the wall, mate. What’s on your mind?”

Draco just looked at his boyfriend. How could he not be bothered by the fact that, in three days, they would be back at Hogwarts? The place that they had betrayed. The place where so many of their classmates perished by their parents’ hand. Draco had to go back and try and get these people to trust him, to have them respect him as Head Boy. McGonagall had to be out of her right mind putting Draco in that position. He could feel his chest tighten and his hands start to shake. He clenched his hands together and closed his eyes to control his breathing. He felt a hand rest on his knee, and he looked up at Theo. His eyes were dark, almost black, and held worry in them. Draco took a deep breath.

“I just don’t understand how everyone could be comfortable with us returning to Hogwarts. We were horrible, Theo. Our _parents_ were horrible. Everyone is going to hate us.”

Theo didn’t know what to say. In fact, he was worried about those things, as well. But he knew he wasn’t going through it alone. Draco saw this as his own battle, his own personal fight. He didn’t realize the support he had behind him. “Draco, that’s all in the past. We’ve moved on from how we were. We grew up, we changed. Hell, look at who we’re here in France with. Surrounded by Gryffindors and a Ravenclaw.” Draco fought a smile coming to his face. “We’re not alone anymore, Draco. We have this lot, and we have each other.”

Draco looked up at his boyfriend. His blue jumper complimented his dark eyes and his brown curly hair. Draco will never understand how he got so lucky. He had always found Theo attractive, but he didn’t expect to ever be honest with himself and admit those feelings. He also never expected for Theo to return those feelings.

Draco put his hand over Theo’s on his knee and squeezed. Theo beamed at him, and Draco returned it. They spent the rest of the boat ride secretly holding hands and talking about their final day in the country and their surprise that they had planned.

Blaise was doubled over in laughter as Luna was describing how she had yelled at Harry Potter during the war. She said that he wasn’t listening to her and what she had to say and how she finally had to scold him like a bad puppy. She said he came with her with his tail between his legs.

“Who would have guessed Potter, _the_ Harry Potter, was scared of strong women. After everything he’s faced,” Blaise chuckled.

“Harry has always been rather timid around women,” Luna smiled. The two had spent their time exchanging stories about their younger years and their time at school. Blaise admitted that he found Luna’s lionhead that she wore to the games rather impressive, and she admitted that it took her hours to make. Something crossed Blaise’s mind and he decided to ask her about it.

“Luna?” she gave him a small hm. “Why were you always barefoot at school?”

“Oh, that? My fellow housemates would steal my shoes and hide them from me,” Luna said offhandedly. Blaise just stared at her bewildered. She had known and not told anybody?

“Why would they do that?”

“I’m not sure they liked me all that much,” she said. “They would take other things, too. My books. My bags. Most of the time, they would ignore me as well.” She paused for a second. “Except to call me Loony.”

Blaise felt himself blush. He had been a part of that group at one point, and he felt ashamed of himself for his behavior. “Luna, I am really sorry for what we said when we were in school. And how we acted.”

Luna smiled at him. “I know you are. Draco and Theo apologized a short time after the war.” She gazed out at the skyline. “I never really cared for what other people had to say. I like being myself. But if it makes you feel better, I do forgive you.”

Blaise watched Luna with new admiration. Blaise had always cared what other people thought or had to say. The fact that Luna could brush all of that off and continue being her was outstanding. Blaise thought she was brilliant and wicked smart. They spent the rest of the boat ride exchanging stories and getting to know one another.

George kept fiddling with the box he had in his pocket. He was thinking of what to say to make his proposal sound right. He was going to propose in front of the Eiffel Tower when they went back later tonight. He was excited and nervous. He wanted everything to go perfectly.

“Are you having fun?” Angelina turned to him. She had been taking pictures of the skyline when she noticed George staring blankly at nothing. He turned to look at her, almost surprised that she was there, and gave a sheepish smile.

“Sorry, I was just thinking,” George said. Angelina gave a big sigh.

“You don’t need to worry,” she reached over and squeezed his hand. “Lee and Felicity can handle the shop just fine. You’ll go back and find the shop in one piece.”

George chuckled. If only she knew what he was actually thinking about. “Of course, you’re right,” he squeezed her hand back. “How is it you’re always right?”

She laughed at him and turned to look at the boat behind them. Fred and Hermione were laughing, and Angelina pointed. George turned and grinned as he watched his twin reach out and wrap one of Hermione’s curls around his finger. The look on Fred’s face said it all. He was looking at her like she was the greatest thing in the world. George remembered when he suggested back in their seventh year to pull a prank on the girl and Fred became irate. When George saw the anger flare behind his twin’s blue eyes, he knew the extent of his feelings for her.

“They sure have gotten close,” Angelina commented as she watched the couple. They weren’t official, but Angelina knew they would be soon enough. They just needed time.

“They’ve always been close,” George commented, “I reckon that they’re just realizing what we all have for a long time.”

“Hermione, you expect me to believe that you would ride a _dragon_ but not a broom? You’re mental,” Fred laughed. Hermione had been telling him the story about their escape from Gringott’s, rather dramatically he might add. They were both laughing as she explained how the dragon completely took off without warning and how she had been screaming rather loudly.

“It’s true!” Hermione laughed. A few months ago, that story was not funny. Hermione had been scared out of her mind. But now here she was, laughing with Fred about it. That’s one way her and Fred differed: she found the logic in situations, whereas he found the humor.

Fred held up his hands in mock surrender. “Okay, okay. I’ll believe you. I still think you should let me take you on a broom ride. It’s rather fun.”

“I’ll think about it,” Hermione smiled at him. They were coming to the end of their boat ride. That made Hermione rather sad, she liked her time she got to spend with Fred on their own.

“Oy, Fred! Hermione!” the couple turned to see Bill and Fleur standing on one of the bridges. They were both waving at them. They walked towards where they would all be disembarking. Once their group was out of their boats, they went to greet the new couple.

“Bill. It’s good to see you,” Neville went and shook his hand. He turned to Fleur and gave her a hug.

“It’s good to see you lot in one piece,” Bill joked as he finished shaking hands. He gave Fred and George hugs and twirled Ginny around. Bill turned to Hermione and he gave her a hug much like Ginny’s.

“Bill! Put me down!” Hermione giggled. Bill had been one of the first Weasley’s she had grown close to this last summer. They were both academics, and Hermione enjoyed arguing with him. He teased her incessantly about anything, but Hermione enjoyed it. She missed him when he was in France with Fleur. She was excited for their baby to be born, who was due at any moment.

Bill finally put Hermione down and was grinning at her. “Nice jumper,” he drawled. Hermione was wearing one of Fred’s very old jumpers, this one a light green with a gold ‘F’. He couldn’t fit this one anymore, it was much too short for his long torso. Hermione rolled her eyes at him and went to give Fleur a hug.

“Have you all been to the Louvre yet?” Fleur asked as she pulled away.

“No, that was our next stop,” Hermione answered, and the group nodded.

“Exzeellent! Ve vill join you then,” Fleur smiled, and the group started the short walk to the museum. Once they got there, they followed Fleur around as she gave them the grand tour of the place. Fleur had been here many times and spent a lot of time here as a kid. She showed them all the normal parts that only the muggles could see, then brought them to a small room that was only available to witches and wizards. The small room held old artifacts from Wizarding France. Hermione walked through as she looked at old necklaces, and wands, and books. She loved it. Even Draco hadn’t known about this section. The two history lovers thanked Fleur profusely for showing them this spot and Fleur was happy that they had a good time.

By the time they finished walking around the Louvre and exploring some other nearby buildings, it was time for dinner. They decided to stop at a small restaurant outside of the Eiffel Tower. Bill and Fleur joined them for dinner. Fred filled himself up with all of the food he could, and Hermione giggled at him. She still couldn’t believe how much he could eat and still be this lean. He swallowed his food and then stuck his tongue out at her. Hermione just laughed and Fred joined.

Once they were done, they walked over to the Eiffel tower. It was magnificent, the bright yellow lights casting a faint glow on all of them. Hermione was standing there when she felt an arm wrap around her shoulders. She looked up to see Fred, the yellow lights dancing off his blue eyes. She smiled up at him and wrapped an arm around his waist. They stared at each other a moment longer before they heard a gasp. They turned to see Angelina covering her mouth with her hands and George on one knee and a ring held out before him.

“Angelina Johnson,” he started. It was the most confident Fred had ever seen his soft-spoken twin. “You are the love of my life. You’ve stayed with me through thick and thin, fought next to me in war, and comforted me when I needed it most. I can’t imagine my future without you in it. In fact, I just don’t want to. So, will you do me the honor of becoming Mrs. Weasley and marrying me?”

Angelina had fat tears streaming down her face. She looked down at the man she has loved since their years at Hogwarts. “Yes!” George slipped the ring onto her finger and stood up. He gave his fiancée a deep kiss. Suddenly, he could hear cheering all around him. Their whole group had surrounded them, and before they knew it, they were being passed around for hugs and handshakes. Angelina was gushing with the girls over her ring when George got to Fred.

“I’m proud of you, Forge,” his twin whispered as he leaned in for a hug. George gave his twin a tight squeeze. They stayed like that a few seconds more before separating. “And you did it all without letting a tear slip. I bet Charlie ten galleons you’d cry.”

George punched him on the shoulder and laughed as Fred grabbed onto it in pain. He made his way around the group of guys, receiving congratulations from everyone. Angelina finally made her way back to him and she gave him a long kiss.

“Sorry to ruin the moment,” Theo interrupted. “But it’s still a long drive back. We ought to get going.”

The group piled into their vans after saying goodbye to Bill and Fleur. This time, Hermione was in a car with Neville, Ginny, Fred, and Luna. Luna sat in the back next to Neville and Ginny, while Hermione and Fred took the middle row. She pulled out her CD player again and offered Fred one of her earbuds. She chose a CD, one with a bunch of slow songs so that they could relax if they wanted to. Before she knew it, she was asleep against Fred’s shoulder and he was fast asleep resting against her head.

When they finally got home, it was a little past midnight. They all said their sleepy goodnights and made their way to their rooms. Hermione was up in her room when she realized she would have to sleep in her own bed that had gone untouched this entire trip. After their dinner last night, her and Fred decided to re-watch _Willy Wonka,_ since they didn’t get to finish it before. She had no excuse this time to be in Fred’s bed; she had gotten use to his strong, warm presence. She got herself ready and stood next to the bed. Fred had already gone to sleep, and Hermione was unsure which side to sleep on.

“Hermione,” she turned her head to see Fred lifting up the blankets, “Get over here.” She smiled and hurried over before he could change his mind. As she was getting settled, he mumbled sleepily, “I could hear you thinking all the way over here.”

She rolled her eyes. “Night, Freddie.”

“Night, love.”

…

The next day went by uneventfully. They had all woken up and were still exhausted from the day before. They spent the day lounging around the pool, and Fred and Hermione decided to bring the TV downstairs and watch _Matilda_ with everyone. While that was playing, Hermione and Luna sat together reading their books. Hermione kept stealing glances at Fred and watched as his eyes crinkled when he laughed and how they shined with excitement at his favorite parts.

At dinner, Draco cleared his throat and stood up.

“As you all know, tomorrow is our last full day here in France,” everyone looked rather sad at that statement, “So Theo and I decided to plan a surprise for you all. As a thank you, and as a special ending to our trip.”

“What else is there to possibly see?” Ginny asked. She thought they had seen everything France had to offer, and she was excited to go home and tell her mum and dad all about it. She also bought them gifts along with her other brothers.

Draco smirked. Hermione wondered what they could have planned. She racked her brain for clues, but she came up with none. “We’re going to _Disneyland_.” Hermione gasped.

“You can’t be serious,” she said. She was almost shaking with excitement. She had gone with her parents once when she was very small to the one all the way in America. She had heard they built one here in Paris a few years back and had always wanted to go. “Draco, Theo! This is brilliant!” she got up to hug each of the boys.

“What’s Disneyland?” Blaise asked.

“it’s a muggle theme park. It has rides, which is like sitting in a car, but you get to see the different animations, the best churros on earth, and a firework show at the end of the night.”

“Wicked,” the twins said in unison. They were excited to see Muggle fireworks and what they could do.

“What is a churro?” Luna asked Hermione. She thought about how to explain it.

“it’s a pastry that’s deep fried and covered in sugar.”

“That sounds tasty,” Luna answered.

“So, are we all in?” Theo asked the group. The group all nodded their heads. “Sweet,” he grinned.

“Tomorrow morning we’ll apparate to the Eiffel tower and take a van from there. That way we don’t have to sit for so long.” Draco said.

They spent the rest of the night questioning Hermione on muggle theme parks and what else they could do there. Hermione was so thankful for Draco and Theo; they were such amazing and thoughtful people. Hermione promised herself that she would watch out for them at school. She knew that they would hate that, but she wanted to help them like they helped her this summer.

…

The next morning, everyone got ready and met outside at 10:00. They had all decided to apparate in pairs. Fred held his arm out for Hermione and she gladly took it. She hated apparating. She had apparated so many times with Harry and Ron with not so good outcomes. Fred noticed that something was wrong.

“Everything okay, ‘Mione?”

“I just hate apparating,” she told him. She could already feel the tug in her stomach, and it was making her feel uneasy.

Fred frowned at her. He loved apparating and couldn’t imagine why she hated it so much. “It’ll be over quick, I promise.” She looked up at him and slightly nodded her head. He gave her a small smile and she returned it. Fred felt the pull at the pit of his stomach and heard the faintest of cracks. When they came to, he steadied Hermione on his arm. She looked pale, but she gave him a reassuring smile and squeeze to his arm. She looked around and he felt her tense up.

“What’s wrong?”

Hermione knit her eyebrows together. “Nothing, I just thought…” she shook her head, “I’m sure it was nothing.” She let him lead her away, but she couldn’t shake away her bad feeling. She could have sworn she had seen the familiar flash of red and black hair pass by them in the crowd.

…

By 2:00, they had been on _Big Thunder Mountain_ , _Pirates of the Caribbean_ , which the twins really enjoyed, and _It’s a Small World_. Hermione regretted getting on the last ride as now Theo and Neville kept humming the tune and it was driving Hermione up the wall. Ginny, Luna, Angelina and Hermione were now standing in line to buy some churros for the group.

“Hermione, is this much like the park you went to in America?” Luna asked her.

Hermione thought about it. She had been really small when she had gone with her parents. “I’m not sure. Some of the rides seem similar, but I can’t really remember.”

“It’s crazy none of this has magic involved,” Ginny said. “All of the rides and moving pieces were invented by muggles. It’s brilliant.”

“There are some genius muggles out there,” Angelina said.

Hermione smiled. “Yes, yes there are.”

Once the group was done eating, they decided to make their way towards a ride called _Indiana Jones_. It was a rather long line, and Hermione noticed that Blaise, Theo, and Draco had their heads together whispering intently about something. Hermione frowned. She hoped that they weren’t fighting about something. Then she saw Theo smirk and her worry disappeared. She would have to question Draco on what they were talking about later.

Once they had finally gotten on the ride, Hermione decided she liked this one the best. It was so interesting, and she didn’t know what to expect with the ride. After the ride, she explained to the group that it was based off a popular muggle film.

“We have to watch it sometime,” Fred said as he wrapped an arm around her shoulders.

“I’ll see what I can do,” Hermione smiled up at him. Fred smiled back but didn’t remove his arm. Hermione didn’t mind. The group was walking down main street when Theo broke off and talked to a worker. He smiled at her and handed her his camera.

“Guys, picture!” The group had gotten used to Theo randomly calling them over for a picture. Hermione had questioned Theo how many cameras he had gone through and he told her four. When she asked what he could have possibly taken pictures of, he just smirked at her and told her that she would see soon enough.

Everyone squeezed in together. The background had the tall pink castle in it, and they all had huge smiles on their faces. Fred was behind Hermione and he wrapped his arms around her waist and Hermione smiled up at him and put her hands over his. Neville tentatively put his arm around Ginny’s shoulders, and she wrapped an arm around his waist. He smiled broadly at the camera. Blaise did the same with Luna. She gave him one of the biggest smiles he had seen from her and they both turned towards the camera. Draco and Theo were brushing arms and George and Angelina were cuddling up close. The worker snapped the picture.

“Can we get one with just you, Hermione?” Theo questioned. Of course, Hermione agreed. She placed herself in the middle of the two boys and wrapped an arm around both of them. All three had huge smiles on their faces when the camera clicked.

“Did you all want some couple photos?” the worker smiled at all of them. They all readily agreed. Neville and Ginny took one with Ginny on Neville’s back; Blaise and Luna took one doubled over in laughter at something Theo had said right before; George and Angelina took on kissing and Angelina’s hand out to show her ring; Draco and Theo took a classic guy’s picture with their arms around each other’s shoulders. When it came down to Fred and Hermione, she wondered how they would take theirs.

“Do you trust me?” Fred asked her suddenly.

“What?”

“Do you trust me, love?”

“Yes…” Hermione said unsurely. Before she could say anything, Fred was leaning down and she found herself high up on Fred’s shoulders. She gave a little scream but then she was laughing as she tried to balance herself without hurting Fred. Fred had a hold of her thighs and was laughing when he heard Hermione’s shriek. He was glad to hear the giggle that came out next. They both turned towards the camera and gave big smiles as the camera went off. Fred gently got Hermione back down to the ground and was giving her a shit-eating grin. Hermione mock glared at him and turned towards the rest of the group.

“That was awesome,” Neville said. He was excited for his picture with Ginny to come out. Blaise nodded. He was normally not one for pictures, but he was excited to see his with Luna.

They spent the rest of the day finishing the rides they hadn’t been on yet and waited for the fireworks show. By the end of the night, the twins had matching Goofy hats, all the girls had matching Minnie ears, Draco had an assortment of Disney pins, Theo was wearing a pair of Mickey ears, and Blaise was sporting a new Disney sweater. As they watched the fireworks, Hermione took in a deep breath. She had thought the crowd of people would scare her, and she had felt her chest tighten a few times in line, but just as she was about to break, someone from her group had come up to her. She would relax as soon as she heard one of their voices. She had never felt so secure before. She had the best group of people surrounding her and it made Hermione feel whole after feeling so broken.

…

The next morning was rather bittersweet for Hermione. The group was saying goodbye to such a wonderful home and country and going back to their normal lives. Hermione was excited to go back to school, to finish up her schooling at Hogwarts. It was September 1st, and something at the bottom of her bag made her stop. _How could I forget!_ She made her way downstairs quickly and quietly and turned to the kitchens. The house elves were hard at work, making them breakfasts and packing them lunch for the ride.

“Miss?” Winky came up to Hermione. Hermione smiled brightly at her and she knelt down towards the small elf.

“Winky, how are you?”

“Winky is good, Miss. Did Miss need something?”

“Yes, actually. I was wondering if you could do me a favor.”

“Of course!” Winky brightened up and gave Hermione a huge smile.

“Today is Theo’s birthday,” Hermione started.

“Winky knows this, Miss!” she interrupted. “Winky and the other house elves have prepared a cake for Master Theo!” Winky turned towards the fridge and pulled out a rather large carrot cake. Across the top in icing read “Happy Birthday!”. Hermione smiled.

“This is lovely, Winky, I’m sure he’ll enjoy it,” Hermione made her way upstairs. She knocked on everyone’s doors and told them her plan. She knocked on Theo and Draco’s door and was relieved when Draco answered. She quietly whispered her plan to him, and he agreed with a smirk. Hermione met everyone else downstairs with their wands. The house elves brought out the cake and set it on the table. As Theo was making his way downstairs, he was greeted with the large bellow of, “Happy Birthday!” and rays of light shooting from everyone’s wands. The twins had some of their small firecrackers and were passing those around to everyone.

“What in the...” Theo looked at all of them in shock. He hadn’t told anyone it was his birthday. He hadn’t celebrated it in a long time. Of course, Draco gave him his present upstairs. A beautiful leatherbound notebook, along with some reading material. Theo used to read all the time before the height of the war, and now he hardly did. He had wanted to get started again but hadn’t had the time.

“Happy birthday, mate,” Neville said as he shook his hand. “I’ll have to buy you something from Honeydukes on our first trip out.”

“Since _someone_ didn’t mention we’d be out for his birthday,” Ginny rolled her eyes then smiled. She gave him a hug and he returned it.

“Yes, you musn’t keep things like this from us,” Luna said as she squeezed his hand.

“I knew, but you don’t like others knowing,” Blaise said as he handed him a bottle of Firewhisky.

“Here you go, mate,” Fred held out a bouquet of lollipops.

“Our whole line of Daydreaming Dum Dums!” George finished.

“Thanks,” Theo laughed as he shook their hands. He was really overwhelmed with everything. He hadn’t had a big friend circle growing up. He was used to celebrating his birthday getting to Hogwarts and sharing some sweets with Draco and Blaise. He watched as Hermione made her way up to him. She had a small, wrapped gift in her hand.

“It’s nothing special,” She told him. “It’s just something I’ve been working on.”

Theo unwrapped the small box and pulled out a small, metal snake. It was wriggling in his hand and curled up into a small ball in his palm. He looked up at Hermione in confusion. She smiled and looked at the small metal snake.

“Ring,” and the small snake wriggled to his ring finger and wrapped around it. His head was lying comfortably below his knuckle and his tail wrapped around the bottom of his finger. Theo stared at it in amazement. “You can turn it into a ring, a bracelet, or an arm cuff,” Hermione explained. “He can also send messages.”

“Hermione, this is _brilliant_ ,” Theo breathed. How Hermione came up with this, he didn’t know. But it was truly extraordinary. He enveloped her in a huge hug that took Hermione’s breath from her. He kissed her cheek. “Thank you.”

“You’re welcome,” she smiled at him.

They all enjoyed their cake and breakfast. The house elves made sure that they all had their lunches before they all stepped back through the Floo. This time was much more enjoyable for Hermione, and when she popped back into Malfoy Manor, she didn’t feel sick or overwhelmed. They all grabbed their trunks and made their way to King’s Cross Station. Angelina, George, Fred, and Blaise all decided to see them off. Everyone started saying their goodbyes and Fred pulled Hermione off to the side.

“Will you be okay going back?” He was worried what going back will do to her. He wouldn’t be there to protect her if she needed anything.

“I’ll be fine,” she assured him. “Promise you’ll write?”

“Of course,” he grinned, “Although, I will miss sleeping with a beautiful witch beside me every night.” Hermione blushed.

“And I’ll miss sleeping next to a handsome wizard.”

Fred smiled at her and they heard the horn blow for the last call. Hermione looked at him and held back her tears. She didn’t want to leave him, and she didn’t know the next time she’d be able to see him. He must have seen the look in her eyes because he scooped her up into his arms and whispered, “It’ll be alright, love. I’ll see you soon.” She smiled and he leaned down and placed a small kiss at the edge of her lips. She gave a quick kiss back and ran for the train.

She found a compartment big enough for her and her friends, and as the train pulled off, she gave one last wave to Fred, and he was grinning madly at her.


	7. Hogwarts

Chapter Seven: Hogwarts

Hermione found herself sitting in between Draco and Theo with Ginny, Neville and Luna sitting across from them. The whole train ride was filled with laughs and telling stories and comparing schedules. Hermione shared many of the same classes with Theo and Draco; all three of them tested into N.E.W.T level classes. That released some tension from Hermione; she knew she could keep an eye on them for the year. Ginny and Luna shared most of their classes as well. Ginny was excited to be spending time this year with Luna; she hardly got to spend time with her at school the last few years. Neville shared most of his classes with Dean Thomas and Seamus Finnigan, whom the group had met with at the beginning of the train ride. Hermione was ecstatic to see the two boys holding hands and smiling ear-to-ear.

“Oy, Granger? You there?” Draco was waving his hand in front of her face. She shook her head to clear it and turned to look at him. “We have to start getting ready; we have the prefect meeting in 15 minutes.”

“Oh, right,” Hermione had completely forgotten about the meeting before they arrived. They had to discuss their roles for helping Hagrid with the first years. Hermione grabbed her robes and headed towards the bathroom. She met Draco at the prefect’s compartment. There were so many students, six from every house. Hermione could feel her chest tighten up being around so many people. She relaxed a little bit when she saw Ginny and Luna giving her smiles and she felt Draco give her hand a light squeeze. She took a deep breath.

“Hello, everyone. Welcome to your first prefect meeting of the year. In case you didn’t know, my name is Hermione Granger, and I will be your Head Girl.”

“And I am Draco Malfoy, and I will be your Head Boy.” Draco said with more confidence than he really felt. The only two people smiling up at him were Ginny and Luna; everyone else was eyeing him warily. Draco remained composed on the outside, but he was a wreck on the inside. He suddenly wished Theo was there.

“Why should I be listening to the likes of _you_?” A Slytherin prefect sneered at Draco. “We heard about you and how you betrayed your entire house.”

“That is quite enough- “Hermione started but was cut off by the compartment door opening. To everyone’s surprise, Headmistress McGonagall waltzed in. Her long, purple robes were billowing behind her and her sleeves were flowing freely down her arms. She looked strong and intimidating, but Hermione could see a glint of excitement in her eyes.

“Mr. Malfoy, Miss Granger,” she smiled warmly at the two. “The train will be arriving in ten minutes. How are the prefect duties coming along?”

Hermione looked up at her mentor and gave her a huge smile. “Prof- erm…” she cleared her throat. “Headmistress, it seems as though some people believe Draco isn’t fit for his position.”

McGonagall looked at her prefects in bewilderment. “Certainly, that isn’t true. I chose the most notable and honorable students to be the prefects for this year.”

“Unfortunately, Headmistress McGonagall, it is true,” Ginny said. “It seems the Slytherins believe that Draco has betrayed his house.”

“Oh, but it is quite the opposite,” McGonagall turned to rest her hand on Draco’s shoulder. “I believe Mr. Malfoy has done his house proud and a great form of justice. He fought alongside his housemates and protected his school. He was present during the rebuilding of Hogwarts and was an integral part of setting up our wards. I could not have chosen a better Head Boy to represent our school or Slytherin house.”

Hermione could see Draco’s ears turning pink and she had to fight back a laugh. Draco sent her a glare and she mouthed sorry but still had a smile on her face.

“I’m sorry, Headmistress, I just don’t see it that way,” the Slytherin prefect said. His fellow housemates were nodding their heads with him. “He left his housemates behind during the battle and betrayed a lot of them.” Hermione could see Draco clenching his fists. She reached over and wrapped her hand in his. He looked over at her and Hermione could see the doubt behind his confident façade. She gave him a small smile and once last reassuring squeeze before turning back to the group.

“I trust Draco. I trust his abilities to lead this group. I will not tolerate disrespect towards your Head Boy. Just because you are prefects does not mean you will be able to get special treatment.” She made sure to direct that statement towards the whole group. “Just like you, we have to ability to award and take away points. If I hear any more of this, I will not hesitate to take House points, even if it is my own.”

“Very well said, Miss Granger,” McGonagall smiled. “She is right. This year is to be about unity. I’m sure your Heads of House will agree.” She turned to look at the group of Slytherins. “Do we understand?” The group nodded, unwillingly. “Good. Now, Miss Granger, may I borrow Mr. Malfoy for a moment while you coordinate our groups?”

“Of course, Headmistress.”

“Thank you,” McGonagall walked out. Draco raised an eyebrow at Hermione, and she shrugged her shoulders. He followed Headmistress McGonagall out the compartment and shut the door behind him. Hermione quickly hurried through what needed to be done down by the boats. The Slytherin students didn’t give any more trouble throughout the ride, even checking with Hermione before leaving to the back of the train. A few minutes later, the train lurched to a stop. The remaining prefects were sent to their respective duties. Hermione gave Ginny and Luna a small smile as they made their way out. Hermione went to find Draco after checking the train for any struggling students and found him outside.

“What did the Headmistress want?”

“I’ll tell you more about it later. Right now, tell me the plan for our prefects.” Hermione gave Draco the rundown of what she had planned out. She noticed that he looked better than when he left the compartment. He was even smiling as Hermione was talking. It must have been good news. As they were making their way towards the carriages, there was a boisterous voice coming from behind them.

“Hermione!” she turned and saw Hagrid walking towards them. His beard was as bushy as ever and his clothes looked brand new. He was smiling broadly at them as he came up. “And Malfoy! Good teh see ‘ya both.”

“Hagrid!” Hermione exclaimed as she wrapped her arms around his big frame. He patted her back in return. “It’s so good to see you.”

“Yes, Hagrid, it’s good to see you looking well,” Draco stuck his hand out to shake, but Hagrid pulled him in for a hug much like Hermione’s. Draco looked so flustered; Hermione burst out laughing. To her surprise, Draco was laughing as well.

“’Ya both look great,” Hagrid said. “And I can’t wait for ‘ya teh see my new hut.”

“Did it get rebuilt as well?” Hermione questioned. She hadn’t known about Hagrid’s hut getting destroyed.

“Yup!”

“I can’t wait to visit,” Draco smiled at him.

“Let’s get ya two teh the carriages,” Hagrid shuffled them along. Hermione felt herself falter when she saw the Thestrals. Draco must have noticed them, too, because he also came to a stop. They were large, black creatures, with the same build as a horse and wings like a dragon. They were pitch black and they were fleshless, their black coats clinging to their bones. Luna and Harry had explained them to Hermione before, but up close, they seemed rather ominous. Hermione reached her hand up to their reptilian faces and was surprised to find that he (Hermione decided it was he) snuggled her hand.

“A lot of students can see ‘em this year,” Hagrid said sadly. “Good teh know they’re used to humans. Thanks teh Luna, of course.”

Hermione smiled as she thought about Luna feeding all of the Thestrals. _She probably has names for them all, too_ , Hermione thought to herself.

“Don’ worry, they won’ hurt ‘ya. Better hurry, this is the last carriage.” Hagrid said as he helped both of them up. Draco looked pale as he sat down.

“Are you okay, Draco?” Hermione asked, knitting her eyebrows together in concern.

Draco swallowed the lump that he had formed in his throat. “Erm…” he cleared his throat again. “Yes, I’ve just never…” he gestured towards the Thestrals. Hermione understood; he hadn’t seen one yet.

“It does take some getting used to, I suppose,” Hermione told him. “But Luna says they’re rather sweet.”

Draco rolled his eyes. “ _Of course_ she does, she loves all living things. I’m sure she finds acromantula sweet and cuddly.”

Hermione laughed and the tension from both of them disappeared. They spent the rest of the carriage ride discussing their plans as Head Boy and Girl and where they thought their dorm would be set up. As the buildings of Hogwarts came into view, Hermione felt a mixture of emotions overtake her. She swallowed them down and followed Draco to the Great Hall.

…

Draco was shaking his leg underneath the table. McGonagall would start her speech soon and that means introducing the new Head Boy and Head Girl. He would have to stand up in front of everyone, and they would all give him the same looks the other prefects did. He didn’t understand why he was here, or why McGonagall gave him this position. _No one is going to accept that fact that I’ll be their Head Boy for the year,_ Draco thought to himself. The Great Hall looked great after the rebuild. You could still some cracks here and there, and some discoloration from the bricks. The ceiling was still charmed to look like the sky with the candles floating. He looked down the Slytherin table from his spot at the very front. Not many Slytherins returned after the Battle. The table was maybe half as full as it used to be. The thought made him rather sad. He was separated from the rest of the group, except for Theo. Theo sat across from him and babbled on about everything he could possibly think of.

“Blimey, who do you think they have coming back for Defense Against the Dark Arts?” Theo asked as he looked up at the teacher’s table. Draco turned his attention there but then he felt sick looking at the chair Snape used to occupy. He got rather close to his old professor in the months leading up to the battle; he was the one that protected him from the horrors happening in his house. Just as Draco was about to stand up and excuse himself to the restroom, a hand rested on his shoulder.

“Chocolate?” Draco found himself looking into the face of Remus Lupin. Draco looked at him uncertainly. “It’ll help you feel better,”

“It will?”

“I like to think it does.”

Draco took the piece of chocolate and nibbled on it. Lupin had shown up to the Burrow a few times while Draco and Theo were staying there. He brought with him his second Cousin Teddy. Draco got to finally meet his Aunt Andromeda and his cousin Nymph- Tonks. He remembered almost watching his cousin and her husband’s final stand. If it hadn’t been for Draco and Blaise being in that corridor, Draco may not have ever gotten the chance to meet them.

“Professor Lupin, what are you doing here?” Theo asked as he also accepted a piece of chocolate from him.

“Well, I decided to come back to be your Defense Against the Dark Arts Professor,” Lupin told them with a small smile.

“Really? That’s brilliant!”

Lupin chuckled at Theo’s enthusiasm. ”Hopefully we won’t be needing it any time soon. Draco, Tonks sends her love, and she hopes you write soon.” Draco nodded. He wanted to get to know his cousin and his Aunt. They were his only true family now. “I do hope to see you two more later. For now, enjoy the feast.”

Draco watched as Lupin made his way over to the Gryffindor table. He watched as Hermione saw him and her eyes brightened up. She gave the Professor a big hug and started talking animatedly with him. Draco had made a promise to a certain Weasley twin before he left to watch over Hermione, to make sure being here without Potter and Weasley wouldn’t be too much for her. Draco had argued that she would make it perfectly fine, until he looked over at her before parting ways to their respective tables and seeing that she was whiter than a ghost.

“She’s rather excited to see him,” Theo observed as he turned back towards Draco.

“She liked him as a professor. And he was part of the Order, it makes sense they got close.”

“You’re right. Are you sure you’re okay, Draco?”

Draco looked up into Theo’s dark eyes. They were filled with worry and fear- fear that Draco would break and fear for himself. Draco gave him a small tap under the table with his foot. “I’ll be alright as long as you stick around.”

“Oh, don’t worry, it takes way too much to get rid of me,” Theo smirked as McGonagall cleared her throat.

“Good evening, everyone!” Everyone quieted down. “Welcome to another year at Hogwarts. As you know, last year was a dark time for us all. This year, as we remember the lives of the ones we lost, we hope to bring everyone together in unity and peace. As always, we’ll be starting with our sorting ceremony for our new first year students.”

The sorting ceremony went by rather quickly this year. There weren’t that many new students starting school this year; parents were still mourning and worrying over the war. When the first student was announced for Slytherin, only Draco and Theo stood and clapped. It was as if the other Slytherins felt sorry for her. Draco welcomed her to the house and offered her a seat next to him. She was quiet and scared, and Draco wanted nothing more than to ease her nerves. Two more Slytherins were called, twin boys, and Theo took charge of greeting them and making them feel welcome at the table.

“Now that the sorting has been done,” McGonagall started, “There are a few rules I need to go over. As always, the Forbidden Forest is off limits to students. Curfew will be 10:00 pm sharp. If you have any questions, please feel free to seek out a professor or one of your house prefects. Prefects, if you could please stand so we can identify you.” McGonagall watched as all the prefects stood up for a moment and ushered them to sit back down. “You may also seek out your Head Boy and Girl should you not be able to find your prefects. If you two could please stand.”

Hermione stood up on shaky legs. Everyone was looking at her as if she was some kind of hero, as if she was famous. The whole thought made her sick. She wanted to run, get away from all those peering eyes. She looked up at Headmistress McGonagall and she gave her a reassuring smile. That rooted Hermione to her spot.

What made her sicker was the way the students were looking at Draco. He was standing up straight keeping his gaze at one point of the Great Hall. Hermione knew he was doing everything he could to not show his fear or apprehension. He finally met the gaze of Hermione and she gave him a small nod. He returned it and they both took their seats.

“Now, let the feast begin!”

…

After the feast was over, Hermione and Draco were led to their common room. Hermione was much more relaxed, being away from the large crowd. Draco seemed much more relaxed now as well. Hermione was surprised to find him talking with the new first years throughout dinner. He was talking to the new Slytherin girl. She was very pretty, with long brown hair and big brown eyes. She was talking with Draco throughout dinner about the history of the school and magic and asking Draco nonstop questions.

“She reminds me of you, Granger,” Draco said, “With manageable hair and being in Slytherin,” and she slapped him on the arm.

As they kept walking, Hermione looked around. There were still some portions of the castle that needed some fixing, but for the most part, it was completely done. There were some cracks that needed to be filled. There were still some corridors that needed to be scrubbed from the blood spilled. As they passed a rather bloody corridor, Hermione felt sick. She found herself lingering a little longer, until she felt Draco grab her arm and pull her along.

“Here we are,” McGonagall stopped in front of a new painting. It was the Hogwarts castle with the moon rising over the lake. If you looked close enough, you could see the water rippling and the lights flickering in the castle. “Your password is _novis initiis_.”

“ _New beginnings_ ,” Hermione and Draco said at the same time.

“Correct,” McGonagall smiled, “What this year will be all about. Now, go inside. I imagine you two are exhausted from your long day.” And with that, McGonagall left the two in front of their common room.

“I wonder if the scene will change with the time of day,” Draco pondered as he ran his hand along the Black Lake. He could have sworn the ripples moved with the way his hand did and could feel the coolness of the water. He pulled back. “After you, Granger.”

“ _Novis initiis_ ,” They watched as the water rippled and the painting swung open. Hermione pushed it the rest of the way in. 

When they stepped through their entryway, Hermione and Draco were left speechless. The back wall was a window with the perfect view of the Black Lake and the Forbidden Forest. There were two desks set along the window, offering a perfect studying and reading spot. In the middle of the room was a sitting area, with two couches facing each other. The small table in the middle held different kinds of magazines and newspapers. There was a small kitchenette in the righthand corner with a fridge, a stovetop and oven, and counter space. In the opposite corner, there was a door that Hermione opened to find a bathroom. There was a large, oval shaped bathtub and shower combination with showerheads coming from the ceiling. There were two more doors on either side of the living space and Hermione opened up the door to find a circular bedroom. There was a large bed, a dresser, and a desk in the spacious room. This room was in various shades of reds and golds. Hermione assumed the other room was in various shades of silvers and greens. She walked over to the open door and found she was right.

“Let me guess: your room is red and gold,” Draco raised an eyebrow at her.

“You would be correct.”

“Typical,” Draco rolled his eyes.

“What did McGonagall want to see you about on the train?”

Draco felt a small smile tug at his lips, “Always curious, are we, Granger?” He laughed as she gave a small huff and glared at him. “Professor Slughorn was wondering if I would be interested in an apprenticeship this year in Potions.”

“Draco, that’s brilliant!”

“Yes, I told her that I would do what I could with my never-ending pile of responsibility. She said it would be every other Saturday just helping him prepare ingredients and the like.”

“That sounds doable.” Hermione watched her friend grab his trunk and wave his wand. Immediately, everything started to put itself away. Hermione rolled her eyes. “Seriously? Do you use magic for everything?”

Draco smirked at her. “If I could, Granger, I would.”

Hermione fought back a smile. “Whatever, Malfoy. I’m going to go unpack like a _muggle_ and then get ready for bed.”

“Hermione?”

She stopped and looked back at him. He looked like he was ready to say something more. He took a deep breath and let it out. “If you need someone to talk to, I’m here. In case you, erm… Can’t sleep.”

Hermione sucked in a breath. She knew what he really meant. _In case you have nightmares_. “Of course. You too, you know.” She watched as Draco nodded ever so slightly. “Goodnight, Draco.”

“Goodnight, Granger.”

Hermione walked quickly to her room and shut the door. She didn’t want to think about her dreams and going to sleep. She took a few deep breaths and opened the door just a crack. If she needed to, she could get to Draco. And he could get to her.

Hermione walked over to her trunk and started unpacking. She was just getting to the end when something caught her eye. She pulled out the purple piece of fabric. As she picked it up, a note fell out of it. Hermione picked up the note and unfolded it.

_I thought you might need it, xx Fred_

Hermione smiled as she took a deep breath in. It smelled like gunpowder and a hint of something sweet. _It smells like Fred,_ Hermione thought. She immediately put it on. Hermione wasn’t tired enough to try and fall asleep, so she sat at her desk and picked up her quill. She wrote to Fred, explaining everything that had happened so far on her first day. She thanked him for the shirt. Once she was done and signed her name, she sealed it and put it in her bag to send out first thing in the morning. Hermione yawned and made her way over to the bed. She got comfortable and took in a deep breath. She fell asleep to thoughts of Fred and his hugs.

…

The next morning, Hermione and Draco opted out of going to breakfast in the Great Hall. They made little bowls of oatmeal and a pot of tea and sat on their couches, reading silently. They got a surprise when Theo’s snake, which he named Junior, made his way into their common room. Hermione scooped him up into her palm and watched as the little snake opened his mouth.

“Well, good morning to you, too!” The loud voice of Theo came out. “I can’t believe you two _left_ me, all alone, in the Great Hall! I had to sit at the Gryffindor table with Red and Neville! Which was rather fun, actually. But that is beside the point! And I can’t even go and find you because I don’t know where your common room is! Oh, I know, I’ll just follow Junior.” A knock sounded at the door.

Draco raised his eyebrows, “I wonder who it could be.”

Hermione walked over and pulled open the portrait. On the other side stood a very miffed looking Theo. “Good morning, Theo.”

“Don’t play sweet with me!” he still reached over and gave Hermione and hug. Hermione laughed. “And you!” he whirled around to face Draco.

“Good morning, love,”

Theo’s anger seemed to dissolve in an instant. He walked over and threw his arms around his boyfriend. Draco gave Hermione a smirk; he knew that would calm him down. She rolled her eyes at him. He returned Theo’s hug and accepted his kiss. Theo was beaming at his boyfriend. Draco gave Theo back Junior and he turned him back into a ring and Junior curled up around his finger.

“Are you lot ready to go?” Theo asked. They nodded and grabbed their bags. Hermione said goodbye to them at the door and told them to save her a seat in Arithmancy. Hermione made her way to the owlery and delivered her letter to Fred. She watched as the owl took off and then made her way to her classes. The day passed by rather quickly and to her surprise, relatively normal. She knew this year would be difficult, and as the work piled up, Hermione became excited. She was ready to throw herself back into her work.

She was eating dinner in the Great Hall with Ginny and Neville when a letter fell in front of her. She looked over to see an unfamiliar owl sitting on the table. The owl was a dark shade of grey with hints of white peeking out. What stood out the most was the eyes: they were a bright orange.

“Who’s that from?” Neville questioned. Hermione shrugged her shoulders.

“It is rather beautiful though,” Ginny commented as she pat the owl on the head. Hermione turned the letter over in her hand. There was no name on the envelope. “I wonder who it could be from?”

“I’m not sure,” Hermione decided that the letter was safe enough and opened it.

_Dear Hermione,_

_I’m glad to hear your first day went well. Meet Athena! Georgie and I decided it was time to get an owl for the shop. She’s a Eurasian-eagle owl. She loves to get scratched on her head. Be careful giving her treats; she might nick a finger._

_I’m glad you enjoyed my gift in your trunk. It was difficult to sneak that in._

_Here are some Daydreaming Dum Dums! Share with the lot, we have some new flavors we’re testing out. I also enclosed another Forever Flower, just for you._

_I went to my appointment yesterday. I’m recovering brilliantly. Of course I am, I’m brilliant in everything I do. The healers say the headaches are normal and will go away with time. I still have to go every month for a checkup, which is rubbish. I’ll manage._

_I miss you. Write back soon._

_Give everyone my love for me, will ‘ya?_

_Xx Love, Freddie_

Hermione smiled. It was just like Fred to have so many different thoughts in one letter. She breathed a sigh of relief to hear his appointment went smoothly. The last few had been concerning, especially with his headaches. “It’s from Fred. He sends his love.”

She pulled out her flower. It was a red carnation. Hermione racked her brain: red carnations meant missing someone. Hermione smiled and tucked the flower into her bag with her purple hyacinth. After dinner, she raced up to her room to write him back. She was surprised that Athena stayed with her until she finished. She tied her letter to Athena’s leg and gave her some scratches on her head before she took off.


	8. Birthday

Chapter Eight: Birthday

The next few weeks went much like that first day. Hermione and Draco would wake up and have breakfast in their common room. Sometimes, it would just be them, but other times it was with Theo or some portion of their group. Hermione was grateful for the days that everyone would come. She felt guilty not spending time with them in the Great Hall. She would question what they had been up to while she was locked away studying. Neville had been spending his Saturdays helping Professor Sprout in the gardens. He was under an apprenticeship with her, and he was hoping to be an assistant teacher for Herbology next year. On their off days, Ginny, Hermione and Luna would spend time with the Thestrals and other creatures Hagrid had with him. Hagrid’s new hut was much like his first one, but bigger and more comfortable with new furniture. He even had stables now to house his creatures that he was showing for class. Luna was spending most of her free periods with Hagrid. Hermione knew she aspired to be a magizoologist one day and she couldn’t think of a more perfect career for her. Ginny would spend some time every day on the new Quidditch pitch, trying to get used to the layout. The stands were a little bit higher and a little bit bigger since the old ones got burned down, so Ginny would do laps and practice. Sometimes, Hermione, Theo and Draco would join her. Hermione and Theo would read in the stands while Draco and Ginny would be on their brooms. Theo would sometimes disappear at random times, but he would show back up like nothing happened.   
Hermione always looked forward to dinner. Fred would send her a letter every day. Athena was starting to turn heads when she would arrive. Hermione could hear the whispers, thinking she was from Harry Potter or Ron Weasley, the war heroes. She would tune them out as she read Fred’s letter, which was more times than not accompanied by a flower. So far, she had received a red hyacinth, which represented passion, a pink carnation, that represented gratitude, a pink rose, which represented admiration. Her favorite was the large orange rose, which represented fierce love. Hermione tried not to blush when she received it. She learned that these were not like the products they were selling in the shop, where the color could be changed by either the giver or the receiver. Hermione couldn’t change the color of the flower, which meant he was altering them to have one meaning. She tried with her purple hyacinth and red carnation and found they were the same. Hermione kept them all in a vase by her bed.   
In his letters, he would tell her about the shop and how they were expecting to get busy soon with Halloween coming up. He kept her updated on his appointments with the healers. He would tell her jokes to make her laugh and hope she was getting enough sleep. He would always sign with “Love, Freddie,” and that made Hermione smile. She would race up to her room every night and write back. She had started signing hers, “Love, ‘Mione,” and she could feel her heart skip a beat whenever she did. Every morning, she would go to the owlery before classes and send off her letters. Then she would go to classes and study just like she did before. Except now, she didn’t worry about doing anyone else’s work. When Draco would offer to study with her, he was actually studying and doing his work. He would ask questions and she would give her insight. Sometimes they would argue, but it never got too intense. She liked this routine they had.   
One morning, she got out of bed, expecting to spend her Saturday with Luna and Ginny and the magical creatures. But when she woke up, she heard voices from outside her room. She slowly got out of bed and went to listen in the crack of the door. She heard hushed whispers.  
“It looks fine, Red.”  
“It looks like a child wrote it!”  
“She’ll wake up if you keep yelling!”  
“You guys…”  
“You’re yelling too you prat!”  
“I think it looks lovely.”  
“Thank you!”  
“Both of you are yelling and she’ll be up soon, better hurry.”  
Hermione was confused. It was a Saturday, why were Theo, Ginny, Neville and Luna up so early and in her common room? She racked her brain to try and remember if she forgot any plans. In a panic that she forgot something important, she rushed to get ready. She pulled on a long sleeve shirt and a pair of jeans. She pulled her hair up into a ponytail and grabbed her socks. As soon as she got into the common room, there was a shout.  
“HAPPY BIRTHDAY!”  
Hermione looked around at all of her friends. They were all dressed in sweaters and jeans and had birthday hats on top of their heads. Theo and Neville were blowing on birthday horns, trying to outdo each other. Ginny and Luna were grinning madly at her and Draco was standing off to the side, trying to hold back laughter. Hermione looked on the table and there were presents and a chocolate frosted cake that read “Happy Birthday, ‘Mione” in sloppy cursive. Hermione thought for a second; it was September 19th, her 18th birthday. She was surprised everyone remembered.  
“Erm…” she didn’t know what to say. “Thank you…”  
Ginny was the first to wrap her up in a hug. “Happy birthday, Hermione,” she smiled at her. Hermione was the sister she never had, and she was forever grateful for her.   
“Happy birthday, Hermione,” Luna came up to her next. She wrapped her friend in a hug. “The nargles with you today are rather excited.” Hermione just smiled at her.   
“Happy birthday!” Neville wrapped her up in a big hug and crushed her. “I can’t believe you didn’t tell us!”   
“I actually forgot,” Hermione said.  
“How could you forget your own birthday?!” Theo exclaimed as he enveloped her in a hug. “Do you like your cake? I did it myself.”  
“It looks wonderful,” she laughed as Theo stuck his tongue out at Ginny and she did the same back.   
“Out of the way, Nott,” Draco pushed him out of the way. He gave Hermione a small hug, “Happy birthday, Granger.”  
“Thanks, Malfoy,” she smiled as he gave her a small kiss to her forehead. Ginny wrinkled her eyebrows and promised to talk to Hermione about it later. They spent the next hour eating cake and talking about what to do today. Both Draco and Neville had got out of their apprenticeships for today and planned on making Hermione’s day a fun one.   
“Here! I can’t wait any longer,” Theo said as he shoved a box at Hermione. She said thank you and carefully unwrapped it. It was a beautiful set of earrings. Hermione could tell that they were real diamond, but they were small and tasteful. Hermione gave Theo a hug and immediately put them on. Ginny and Luna said that they were suited Hermione perfectly.   
“I guess that makes mine next,” Draco slid a long box over to her. She opened it to find a thin, silver necklace that also had a chain of diamonds set into it. It was simple and elegant. She had tears in her eyes as she hugged Draco tightly.   
“Mine next, mine next!” Ginny said as she passed Hermione a heavy box. Hermione opened it to see a pile of books she had been looking at in muggle London but didn’t buy.   
“Gin, how did you know?”  
“I watched you in the shop. You would pick it up and look at it but put it down. So, I followed you and grabbed a couple you did that with.” Ginny said rather proudly.   
“Thank you,” she pulled her friend in for a hug.   
“Here, Hermione,” Neville handed her the next gift. “It’s not much, but I hope you like it.” She unwrapped it and found a framed picture of them all in France. It was one of the ones from the fancy dinner. Everyone was dressed up and smiling for the camera. It was in a beautiful Eiffel Tower frame.   
“Neville, I love it,” Hermione felt a few tears come out as she kissed Neville on the cheek. She reached over and grabbed the present Luna was handing out to her. Hermione opened it and it was a silver scarf and beanie set. They were both very soft and shiny. “Luna, this is gorgeous.”  
“I know silver isn’t your favorite color, but I think it will look good on you,” Luna smiled.  
Hermione took her hair down and pulled on the beanie. It had a pompom on top and Hermione shook her head to make it wobble. Everyone laughed and Hermione pulled Luna in for a hug. Hermione pulled away and noticed that there were still presents on the table. “What are all of these?”   
“They’re from my family, mostly,” Ginny answered, “But I think there are some from the professors as well.”  
Hermione started opening the presents. She got another scarf from Mr. and Mrs. Weasley; Charlie sent her a book on Romania and its history; Bill and Fleur sent her a pair of black boots; Percy sent her an advanced spell book; Hagrid baked her some cookies; and from Professor McGonagall she received a leatherbound planner. Hermione was overwhelmed with all of her gifts. She opened her last one labeled from George and it was a gorgeous bouquet of camellias. Hermione knew camellias were a way of saying thank you to someone. She plucked out the note.

Hermione,  
Happy birthday! But also, a formal thank you for being there this summer.  
\- George

“Who are those from?” Draco questioned from the couch.  
“George,” Hermione answered. She looked around and noticed she hadn’t received one from Fred. She didn’t really expect one from him, but she would have at least thought he’d send a card. She also felt a pang of sadness when neither Harry nor Ron sent an owl. She had tried sending Harry a card on his birthday, but it came back unopened.   
“Oy, Granger,” Draco pulled her out of her thoughts. “What did you want to do today? We have the whole day ahead of us.” Hermione thought about it. It was a bright beautiful day. Hermione wanted to enjoy the weather while they still had it.  
“We can go for a picnic? And visit Hagrid and all the creatures,” she suggested. Everyone agreed and Hermione went to pull on another jacket. She glanced at her vase of flowers. She shook her emotions and went to join her friends in the common room. 

…

The six of them made their way down the steps to Hagrid’s hut.   
“Malfoy, remember when I punched you here in third year?”  
“What?!” Theo stopped and looked at the two incredulously. Draco laughed at his boyfriend’s face.  
“Granger gave me a good hit here in third year,” Draco explained. “She had every right; I was being a right git.”  
“When aren’t you one?” Neville said cheekily. Everyone laughed.  
“Careful there, Longbottom,” but Draco was grinning at him.   
“I can’t believe you never told me you got hit by Hermione,” Theo huffed as he caught up to them.  
“I’m sure he didn’t want anyone to know,” Ginny piped up. “I heard it was rather embarrassing.”  
“She had me by surprise, is all.”  
“Whatever you say Malfoy.”  
“What creatures are we feeding today, Luna?” Hermione questioned her friend. Luna was dressed in pink leggings and a purple sweater. Her long blonde hair was braided, and she had a pink beanie on top of her head. They were all colors Hermione would never pull off, but on Luna, they looked amazing.  
“I think we just have the Thestrals today,” Luna thought for a moment. “Although, one of the Hippogriffs was pregnant and I haven’t checked up on her in a while.”  
“Hear that, Malfoy? Your best friend could have been born today,” Neville joked then grabbed his arm as Draco punched him. Neville was still grinning at him.   
“Keep it up, Longbottom,” Draco warned but Hermione knew it wasn’t serious. She laughed as they made it to Hagrid’s door. Hermione knocked and was greeted by Fang jumping on her and licking her with his large tongue.  
“Hello, Fang,” she laughed as she pushed him off.   
“Hermione!” Suddenly, Hermione was lifted up into the air. “’Appy Birthday!”  
“Thank you, Hagrid,” Hermione laughed. Hagrid set her down and got her steady on her feet.  
“Did yeh get my cookies? I sent ‘em with Malfoy.”  
“Yes Hagrid, they’re wonderful,” she told him. They were as hard as a rock, but Hermione just didn’t have the heart to tell him that.   
“Are yeh all here teh feed the Thestrals?” They all nodded at him and Hagrid beamed. “Great! Let me get yeh their food.”  
With a fresh batch of food in some buckets, they all set off into the Forbidden Forest. Draco was starting to feel nervous. He wasn’t scared of the Thestrals. In fact, he thought they were rather interesting. When he saw them, all he could think of were the ones that he watched die and felt as if they were in these creatures, staring into him. When he finally caught sight of them in the woods, his breath caught. There were so many more than he thought. There were large ones and small ones lounging around or drinking some water. He watched as his friends all made their way to a group and started feeding them. Draco just felt stuck. He was looking at the ghosts of his past and he didn’t know if he could do it.  
“Draco?” Luna’s airy voice came to him. “Are you alright?”  
“Y-yes,” Draco stuttered. Luna was smiling gently, as if she knew how he felt.  
“Here, let me help you,” she grabbed his hand. She led him over to where there were some of the small ones were lying down. They all approached Luna like they had known her their whole lives; Draco realized they probably had. “I’ve always been able to see them, you know.”  
“W-what?” Draco was confused. “You have?”  
“My mother died when I was very small,” Luna told him. “I used to think only I could see them, until I did more research. They’re very gentle creatures. My mother would have liked them.”  
“Do you miss her? Your mother, I mean.”  
“Sometimes,” Luna cocked her head to the side. “But I know she would be proud of me. My mum loved magical creatures, that’s why I visit them so often.”  
Draco looked at the girl in front of him. She was so strong, much stronger than he was. He was weak and fragile and knew that he could break at any moment. Suddenly, she grabbed his hand. She brought it up to the young Thestral in front of him and placed his hand on his snout. The young creature nudged his hand and closed his eyes. Draco gave a small smile. He reached into the bucket of food and fed his new friend. “Thank you, Luna.” She just beamed at him.   
“Wow, Theo, you’re a natural at this,” Ginny said as she watched him feed one of the bigger Thestrals. Ginny was still apprehensive around the big ones; she spent most of her time with the smaller ones.  
“I used to come here a lot my first year,” Theo answered.   
“Really? You could… I mean…” For once, Ginny felt at a loss for words.   
“Yeah, I could see them the whole time,” Theo grinned at her. “I watched my mom die when I was still a kid.”  
“Merlin, Theo, I’m so sorry…” Ginny said sincerely. Her and Theo may have always argued and teased, but he was one of her friends now. She felt a sort of protectiveness over him, along with Draco.  
“It’s alright, Red,” he said. “Sometimes, we just don’t get a choice in our lives. It’s what we decide to do that matters.”  
Ginny let Theo’s words sink in. He was right. Ginny didn’t get a say in what happened, but she did get to decide what to do about it. “For once Theo, I think you’re right.” They continued in silence.   
“Neville, you have to get closer to them for them to eat,” Hermione laughed. Neville was sticking his arm out to a Thestral that was a couple feet away from him. Even though he grew in the years Hermione had known him, sometimes she still saw the small, scared boy that he used to be.   
Neville gulped. “Right, right,” He edged closer to the Thestral. The creature must have smelt the food because the Thestral finally closed the gap and carefully took the food from Neville’s hand. That seemed to relax Neville as he took out another piece and fed it to the large creature.  
“See? They really are gentle,” Hermione said as she pet one of the smaller ones on the nose.  
“Hermione?”  
“Hm?”  
“Are you sleeping okay?”   
Hermione stilled and looked at Neville. He was looking at her intensely, ready for her to lie to him. Hermione took a deep breath. “I still get nightmares from time to time,” Hermione admitted. “But I manage.”  
“Why didn’t you tell anyone?”  
“Draco and Theo know,” Hermione whispered. Neville just nodded his head like that made sense. Neville knew the friendship between the three of them. He would even say it was stronger than it was with Harry and Ron. Neville knew that they overlooked Hermione. They overlooked how she had been sleep-deprived the last few years doing their homework and keeping them alive. They overlooked how leaving would make everybody feel.   
“I hate to admit it, but Malfoy and Theo aren’t that bad,” Neville smirked at her, “Just don’t tell them I said that.” Hermione laughed and nodded. “But seriously Hermione. If you ever need anyone, I’m here. Everyone else, too, I reckon.”  
Hermione just nodded. “I know, Neville, thank you,” and she faked a smile. 

…

A few hours later, Hermione found herself having a picnic at the Quidditch pitch. Theo, Draco, and Neville were all chasing each other around on their brooms. Hermione was relaxing on the ground with Ginny and Luna.  
“’Mione?” Ginny asked. Hermione turned to look at her. “What’s up with you and Malfoy?”  
“What do you mean?” Hermione asked confused.  
“I mean, do you fancy him? Does he fancy you?”  
Hermione laughed. This was the second time a Weasley had questioned her relationship with Draco. ‘We’re just friends. Nothing more.” Hermione looked at her friend with a mischievous smile. “What about you and Neville?”  
Ginny flushed a shade of red matching her hair. “We’ve gotten rather close, and I do find him attractive. It’s just…”  
“It’s Harry,” Luna finished. Ginny nodded.   
“I still just can’t believe they left without so much as a goodbye. They didn’t even have the decency to owl Hermione on her birthday!” Ginny huffed. She wasn’t sad anymore like she was at the beginning of summer. She was angry; angry that her “boyfriend” abandoned her, and her brother would leave his family behind. Well, Ginny thought as she looked up at Neville on his broom, ex-boyfriend now…  
“Oy!” a voice shouted at them from across the pitch. Hermione was surprised to see Blaise strolling up to them. He was dressed very casual today; he was in a black sweater and black jeans. When he reached their group, he said, “Ladies, I heard we have a very special birthday to celebrate.” He handed Hermione a bottle of wine. “It’s the best we have to offer.”  
“Oh, Blaise, you didn’t have to,” Hermione got up to hug him. “What are you doing here?”  
“Well, I’ve been meaning to come by to talk to Draco and Theo, but when I heard it was your birthday, I knew I had to come. McGonagall even invited me to stay for dinner,” Blaise explained. Hermione remembered the three boys whispering in line at Disneyland and she made it a point to ask Draco about it soon.   
“It’s good to see you, Blaise,” Ginny got up to hug him. “How do you like the new pitch?”  
“It’s bloody brilliant,” Blaise said looking around. “Kind of disappointed I won’t be getting my arse beat by you on it, Red.” Ginny laughed. “Luna, it’s good to see you.”  
“You as well, Blaise,” Luna said as she got up to hug him. He had been keeping in touch with Luna by owl; they sent letters to each other once a week. He kissed her on the cheek and Luna blushed.   
“Blaise!” Neville flew down and landed near them. He jogged the rest of the way up and pulled Blaise in for a hug.  
“It’s good to see you, too, Longbottom,” Blaise laughed. “How’s the beater training coming along?”  
“Well, actually,” Neville answered. “I wish I could train more, but I think I’ll be ready by tryouts.”  
“I do, too,” Ginny bumped her shoulder with his, and they smiled at each other.  
“Who let this bloke into Hogwarts?” Draco sauntered up them.  
“Yeah, aren’t you a dropout now? Theo came up behind him.  
“Yeah, yeah,” Blaise waved a hand at them. “You’re lucky I’m not here. These ladies would much rather be with me than you lot.” The boys laughed and greeted each other.   
“Will you like some lunch, Blaise? We were just getting ready to eat,” Hermione said as she started pulling out the food from their basket.   
“I’m famished,” Blaise said. They all took a seat and before she knew it, Hermione was caught in the midst of a grape war between all of the boys. The group spent their afternoon laughing and throwing food.

…

Since it was a weekend, it didn’t matter where anyone sat for dinner. The group all decided to sit at the Gryffindor table. McGonagall fussed over Blaise for a while, wishing he would consider taking his N.E.W.T.s and come back. She was also concerned with how he was handling himself all alone. He reassured his old professor, now Headmistress, that he was doing fine and that he would tell her if he ever needed help. By the end of dinner, Hermione could feel herself falling asleep. She excused herself from the table, but before she made it out of the Great Hall, Lupin came up to her.  
“Happy birthday, Hermione,” he handed her a couple bars of chocolate and some sugar quills. “And this is from Teddy,” he handed her a piece of parchment with scribbles on it and Hermione smiled. She was surprised when Lupin and Tonks asked her to be a godmother to Teddy, but she loved the little guy, and she was more than happy to accept.  
“Thank you, Professor,” Hermione gave him a hug.  
“It’s Lupin to you,” he laughed, and she smiled at him. He looked closely at her, “Are you getting enough sleep?”  
“Yes, I think I’m just worn out from today. Everyone surprised me for my birthday,” Hermione lied smoothly. Lupin looked at her for another minute before deeming her answer good enough, or deciding he didn’t want to push her any farther.   
“It’s good to see you around other people. Other than…” Lupin cleared his throat. “Yes, well, I’m glad your birthday was well spent.”  
“Me too, Professor.” Hermione forced a smile. “I’m off to bed now, but I’ll see you Monday.”  
“Goodnight, Hermione.”  
“Goodnight, Lupin.”  
Hermione practically sprinted her dorm. As soon as she got in, she shut her door behind her. She looked at the small mirror on her desk and noticed that the dark circles under her eyes were more prominent than normal. No wonder everyone kept asking, she thought. She made a note to use a glamour spell in the morning. She gathered her things and headed for the shower. Her and Draco had come up with a schedule where he showered in the mornings and Hermione showered at night. She was surprised to find that living with Draco wasn’t as awkward as she originally thought. She had never lived with a boy before, but Draco was clean and picked up after himself. Hermione thought about all the times she would pick up after Harry and Ron and she rolled her eyes. No, Draco was a much better roommate.   
When Hermione returned to her room, she was surprised to find Athena sitting outside her window. She was holding a tiny parcel in her mouth. Hermione hurried over to the window and let the owl in. She fed her some treats and scratched her on the head before turning her attention to the parcel. She got comfortable on her bed and opened it. There was a card that read, “Read me first!” written in Fred’s handwriting that Hermione got to know so well. She quickly tore it open.

Dear ‘Mione,  
Happy birthday! I hope you didn’t think I forgot about you.   
I’m sorry it had to come so late. I had to finish making your gift. Athena was rather peaked when I woke her up. If she’s still like that when she gets there, I hope you don’t mind keeping her for the night.   
There’re explanations for you when you open it.   
Happy birthday, love.   
Xx Love Freddie

Hermione smiled at the letter and gave Athena more scratches before she tucked her head under her wing and went to sleep. Hermione pulled out the rest of the gift. She unwrapped it to find- a CD player. Hermione was confused since there were no CDs in the box. There was one already in the player, so she pressed play. At first, she didn’t hear anything, but then a very familiar voice spoke in her ear.   
“Is this thing on? I hope it is. Hi, ‘Mione! If you couldn’t figure it out yet, which I’m sure you have, it’s Fred. I spent ages trying to figure out what to get you for your birthday. I reckon I drove George up the wall once or twice,” Hermione chuckled, “I knew Percy and Charlie were getting you books and Georgie was getting you flowers, which were my idea by the way.” There were sounds like he was moving. “What! Yes, it was mate! Oh, bugger off. Merlin, what a wanker. Anyway, Hermione, I couldn’t think of anything until I looked over at Matilda and Willy Wonka. You spent time reading to me when I needed it most. And you spend all your time reading, I thought that you could have someone read to you for a change.” Hermione felt a tear slide down her cheek. The last person to read to her had been her mother when she was small and scared of the dark. She had told Fred that so many months ago in the hospital. “Included on the CD are Holes, which was a muggle book I found that the storekeeper said was quite popular, A Beautiful Mind, which sounds rather barmey. I also decided to include my all-time favorite from when I was young, Tales of Beetle the Bard and one I know you love, Hogwarts: A History. Happy Birthday, Hermione. Let’s get started, shall we?” And from there, Fred started reading Holes. He had different voices for the characters and his reactions to the scenes told Hermione this was his first time reading it. Hermione smiled. She couldn’t believe how thoughtful Fred was.  
Hermione listened to Fred read and felt herself being lulled to sleep. She took in a deep breath of Fred’s shirt. For the first night in a long time, Hermione slept peacefully.


	9. Hallowe'en

Chapter Nine: Hallowe’en 

“Granger!”

Hermione groaned. She thought she heard her name being called. She took out her earbuds. She listened again, and when she didn’t hear anything more, she turned and got comfortable and was just about to fall back asleep when her door slammed open.

“Merlin, Granger, get up!” Draco tore the blankets off her sleeping body. Draco thanked every deity that he could think of that Granger slept in a t-shirt and shorts. “Everyone is going to be here in 20 minutes!”

“F’wha?” Hermione slurred. Draco rolled his eyes and crossed his arms. He was dressed in a black jumper and had his Slytherin scarf wrapped around his neck. He had on light blue jeans and black boots.

“It’s the first Hogsmeade weekend, Granger,” Draco stepped out of the way. Hermione came flying out of her bed. She shoved passed Draco and almost sent him flying. “Bloody hell, woman, calm down!” He heard the bathroom door slam shut and he rolled his eyes. He started to straighten out Hermione’s bed when she came back in. She rooted through her drawers and pulled out a pair of black jeans and a black jumper. She started to change when she remembered Draco was in the room.

“Don’t look,” she glared at him.

“Granger, as beautiful as I think you are, you just aren’t my type,” he smirked. Hermione blushed at the compliment but still shot him a warning look. She pulled on her jeans and her jumper. She braided her hair and put her silver beanie on. She tied the scarf around her neck. “Luna was right, you know, silver does look rather nice on you.”

Hermione smiled at him and she put on the earrings Theo gifted her for her birthday and the necklace from Draco. Hermione couldn’t believe that her birthday was already over a month ago. She had been so focused on her classes; she hadn’t given much thought to the first Hogsmeade weekend. Ginny only reminded her on Monday, when McGonagall made an announcement that eighth years were also being given permission to visit Diagon Alley. Hermione wanted to surprise Fred and George there and see if they would join them for lunch. Draco, Theo, and Neville were coming with her to look around and keep her company.

“Mrs. Weasley’s birthday is next week, right?” Draco asked suddenly.

“Yes,” Hermione answered while packing her bag. “Angelina’s, as well. I was hoping to ask George what she would want.” Draco nodded. There was a knock on their portrait, and Draco opened it to find Theo and Neville.

“Ginny went to go get Luna,” Neville explained. He was dressed in khaki pants and a red sweater. He had earmuffs on, and a Gryffindor scarf wrapped around his neck.

“Theo, what happened to you?” Hermione rushed over to him. He had a cut across his face that looked fresh.

“Nothing,” he replied quickly. Draco was looking at the cut on his boyfriend’s face. Grey eyes met black, and Draco raised his eyebrows at him. Theo shook his head.

Hermione watched the interaction and decided to drop the subject. For now. “Come inside, then.”

The two boys stepped inside and sat on the couch. Draco went to get his wand and came back and kneeled in front of Theo. “ _Episkey_.” The cut on Theo’s face slowly started to fade away. Theo wouldn’t meet Draco’s gaze and instead called out to Hermione.

“Are you excited to see Fred and George?”

Hermione smiled at him. The last time she had seen Fred had been the day they left for Hogwarts. They wrote letters to one another, of course, but Hermione wanted to see him. “Yes! It’s been so long.”

Theo smirked at her. “Are you excited to see both of them or a specific one?” Hermione blushed and threw a pillow at Theo’s head.

“I knew you fancied Fred!” Neville exclaimed. Hermione put her head in her hands.

“Yes, yes. Now everybody knows,”

“I think he fancies you, too,”

“What?”

“Fred,” Neville clarified, “I think he fancies you, too. I mean, pretty obvious, innit?” The other boys in the room nodded. Hermione looked around at her friends and shook her head.

“If he does, then why hasn’t he said anything, hm?”

“Why haven’t you?” Theo countered.

“Well, I, erm, you see…” Hermione struggled to find the words. She took a deep breath. “I want to talk to Ron before I decide anything. I don’t want him to feel…” Hermione trailed off. In all honesty, talking to Ron wasn’t the real reason she didn’t want to say anything. It was the fear of rejection that kept Hermione from telling her true feelings for the oldest Weasley twin.

“I think it’s time we moved on from Harry and Ron,” Theo said. “You can’t keep making decisions on them.” There was a knock on the portrait and Draco answered it to find Ginny and Luna standing outside.

“What are we waiting for?” Ginny said. “Let’s go!”

Hermione followed her friends out the portrait and towards the courtyard. She thought about Theo’s words. Harry and Ron had been her best friends until they left. But maybe their leaving showed her where she really stood with them. She glanced up when she heard her name and saw Draco and Theo holding the carriage door for her. She smiled and climbed in.

…

An hour later, the eighth years found themselves walking in Diagon Alley. They had agreed to look at the shops first and then go visit Fred and George. Hermione started at Flourish and Blotts where she found some books needed for her studies. Harry and Ron would have moaned and groaned the whole trip, but Hermione was surprised that the boys with her didn’t complain at all. They let her look through the books at her own pace. Neville even showed her some Herbology books in case she was interested. The next stop was Quality Quidditch Supplies. Draco and Neville wanted to be prepared for Quidditch tryouts in a few weeks. Hermione and Theo walked around the shop with them, not really interested in anything. Theo loved Quidditch, but he didn’t want to try out for the team this year. He wanted to let Draco have his moment to shine. After the Quidditch shop, the group made their way towards Madam Primpernelle’s Beautifying Potions. From there, Hermione bought herself some Sleakeazy Potion and, on a whim, she bought some Star Grass Salve for Angelina. She was always complaining about her Quidditch injuries and Hermione was hoping this would be able to soothe some of them. Finally, the group made their way towards Number 93 Diagon Alley. Hermione was excited and she had an extra bounce to her step.

“Merlin, Granger, slow down,” Draco pulled her arm to stop her. Hermione laughed and swatted his hand away. Theo offered his arm and she gladly took it while sticking her tongue out at Draco. He returned the gesture.

“Bloody hell, they’re packed,” Neville said as they looked at the crowd of people in front of Weasley Wizard Wheeze’s.

“Come on,” Hermione led the group to the alley next to the shop. There was a door and Hermione leveled her wand at it. “ _Alohomora_ ,” and the knob turned. Only a handful of people had access to this door as it led to the twin’s back office. Hermione pushed open the door and walked in. The twin’s desks were on either side of the small room and there were papers scattered all over. Hermione started to sort the papers when something caught her eye. She was at Fred’s desk and there was a picture frame sitting on it. The picture was the one of her and Fred at Disneyland. Hermione was laughing as she balanced on Fred’s shoulders and he was smiling at the camera. She smiled and finished sorting their papers. Finally, they made their way into the shop.

The shop was busy with people. Hermione suspected it was because Hallowe’en was next week. She did a quick scan of the shop and her eyes landed on Fred. He was stocking some supplies back on the shelf. He looked tired and drained, and Hermione frowned. She was used to seeing him smile and laugh. Today, he had a frown and a scowl on his face. She made her way over to him.

“Excuse me, sir, do you think you could tell me about these?”

Fred turned toward the voice that was talking to him. His eyes widened in surprise to see Hermione smirking at him. He smiled and immediately scooped her up into a hug. He lifted her into the air and buried his head into her neck. He took in a deep breath. Hermione had her arms wrapped around his neck and was giggling as his breath tickled her skin.

“I’ve missed you,” he whispered in her ear. She felt tears prick at the corner of her eyes.

“I’ve missed you, too,”

“What in Merlin’s name are you doing here? And how did you sneak in?” Fred asked.

“The back door, of course,” Hermione told him. He smirked at her. “And Headmistress McGonagall gave us eighth years permission to come to Diagon Alley on our Hogsmeade weekends. I came to surprise you.” Hermione looked up at him. “You look exhausted, Freddie,”

Fred sighed. “The shop has been busy. First it was the students going back to Hogwarts, now it’s everyone setting up for Hallowe’en. George and I have had trouble keeping up.” He looked at her and smirked. “If only we had a third hand…”

“You already know I need to finish school,” She wagged her finger at him. “I told you I would think about it.”

Fred held his hands up in surrender. “You’re right, sorry, sorry,” he wrapped one of her curls around his finger. “I really have missed you. Been driving myself mad. Had to stop myself a few times from hopping on my broom and heading to Hogwarts.” Hermione laughed as the three boys finally made their way over to them.

“Fred, it’s good to see you,” Neville smiled and they shook hands.

“Weasley,” Draco greeted with a nod. He was surprised to see Fred hold out his hand. Draco shook it and gave a small smile.

“Fred!” Theo hugged the tall man. “You have to agree to come to lunch. Hermione has been driving me _crazy_ talking about y- ow!” Hermione elbowed him in the stomach and glared at him. Her face was a fine shade of pink and he smirked at her. Draco chuckled and she turned to face him. He held his hands up in surrender.

“I’m not sure I can go,” Fred frowned. He looked around the shop at all the customers.

“Lee Jordan has already begged us to take you,” Draco told him. “George agreed and is upstairs getting a coat.” As if on cue, George appeared from behind Malfoy. He was dressed and ready to go and held out a coat for Fred. He greeted Hermione with a hug.

“Bloody hell, we need to get out of here. I haven’t stepped foot out of this place in _ages_. The sky, I need to see the sky!” George wailed and the group laughed. They waved bye to Felicity and Lee Jordan and walked outside. They disapparated to Hogsmeade and met Ginny and Luna at the Three Broomsticks.

“Little sister!” the twins chorused when they caught sight of Ginny. Ginny grinned back at them and almost tackled them both to the ground.

“Some big brothers you are,” Ginny put her hands on her hips, almost exactly like Mrs. Weasley. “Hermione gets an owl every day from you lot and I hardly hear from you.” Fred blushed and George rubbed the back of his neck.

“We’re sorry, Gin,” the twins said.

“We’ll write more,” George pleaded.

“We promise!” Fred finished. Ginny sighed.

“Very well, I forgive you,” and she suddenly found herself in the air, squished between her brothers. She laughed and hugged them back.

“What a wonderful family,” Luna smiled.

“Hello, Luna, you’re looking well,” George greeted the small blonde girl.

“Hello, George, you look tired. You, too, Fred.” The twins laughed and they all sat down. They ordered butterbeers and some food and spent a few minutes catching up on each other’s lives. Draco and Neville shared about their internships, which Fred and George congratulated them on; Luna talked about all the different creatures she got to see with Hagrid; Ginny told her brothers about the new Quidditch pitch and how she had been selected captain for Gryffindor; Theo babbled on about random topics. Blaise joined them a little while later.

“Weasley twins! Just the men I wanted to see,” Blaise smiled at them as he sat down. He kissed Luna on the cheek as he slid into the booth next to her.

“Really?” the twins raised their eyebrows.

“Really,” Blaise smirked. “I heard you two were looking at expanding into Hogsmeade.”

“Yeah, more of a dream, really,” George answered. He and his twin have been trying to find a spot in Hogsmeade, but they just couldn’t afford it right now.

“Lucky for you, I just came into an apothecary business,” Blaise ordered himself a butterbeer. “I thought we could do some business together.”

“Is that so?” Fred said. He rested his arm across the back of the booth, which was just above Hermione’s shoulders.

“You order supplies to make your potions, correct?” The twins nodded. “I just thought that if you used my apothecary as your main supplier, I would foot the bill of your move into Hogsmeade.” Fred and George’s jaws dropped to the floor. There was silence for a few minutes.

“You’re mad,” George finally said.

“Mental,” Fred clarified. “How does that benefit you at all?”

“Easy,” Blaise waved his hand, “I get my first customers guaranteed, and you advertise the apothecary in your store. It’s a win-win.”

Fred and George looked at each other. This is what they had been working towards for the last few years. It was everything they could have possibly wanted. But they still wanted to talk more about it before committing to anything. There was a silent agreement between them as they turned back towards the dark-skinned Slytherin.

“Tell you what, Zabini,” George started.

“We’ll think about it, then send you an owl.” Fred finished.

Blaise smirked at the two boys and stuck his hand out. “Deal,” and they all shook on it. Suddenly, McGonagall was beside their table.

“Mr. and Mr. Weasley,” she smiled at Fred and George. The twins got up and hugged their old Professor. McGonagall seemed rather shocked but hugged them back no less.

“ _Headmistress_ ,” the twins bowed at her.

“Oh, you two,” McGonagall waved them off. “I heard you were here, and I came to congratulate Mr. Weasley on his engagement to Ms. Johnson.” McGonagall handed George a small parcel. Inside was a quaffle. It was dirty and looked rather beaten up. “It is the quaffle from the final game you and Ms. Johnson played together. I heard that was… quite a special game for you two.” McGonagall had a gleam in her eye and George blushed. It was after that game he and Angelina were _intimate_ together for the first time. How his old Professor found that out terrified George to no end.

“Erm, thank you, Pro- Headmistress,” George hugged her again.

“Headmistress McGonagall,” Fred called out. “I was wondering if I could borrow this lot on Hallowe’en night?”

“Whatever for?”

“Well, Headmistress, it’s mum’s birthday the night before, and Angelina’s,” Fred started. “And knowing Hermione, she won’t come out on a school night,” Hermione elbowed him in the stomach. Fred groaned and continued, “So we were hoping to throw the two a party on Saturday, which just so happens to be Hallowe’en.”

“I see,” McGonagall nodded. She leveled her gaze at him. “And Mr. Malfoy and Mr. Nott are invited as well?”

“Of course,” Fred said much to the surprise of Draco and Theo.

“And you’ll have them back by midnight on Hallowe’en?”

Fred smiled at her, “Yes, Headmistress.” McGonagall looked at him a few moments longer and, satisfied with what she saw, nodded.

“Very well, you all may go. I am trusting you, Mr. Weasley. Especially with my Head Girl.” Now it was Fred’s turn to blush and McGonagall just smiled at him and walked away.

“Are we really invited?” Theo looked at the twins.

“Of course you are, mate,” George answered him. Fred nodded his head in agreement.

“Thank you,” Draco said quietly, and Fred met his gaze. He couldn’t figure out why everyone trusted him so willingly, but Fred was hoping to figure it out. And figure it out soon.

A while later, they all said their goodbyes. Hermione almost cried as she gave Fred one final hug, but she felt reassured after he planted a kiss on the corner of her lip, just like he did when she first left for Hogwarts.

…

The next week flew by really quick. Before Hermione knew it, it was Hallowe’en. They had asked Fred if they needed costumes and he told them that they were optional. Ginny and Neville decided to go as a cat and a dog. Both of them had their ears sitting on top of their head and they were wearing black tops and bottoms to match. Luna was dressed in a red summer dress and had matching red lipstick. She had on a black trench coat to tie it all together. Hermione wasn’t sure what she was supposed to be, if anything, but complimented her anyway. Theo and Draco were in matching Slytherin sweaters and black pants. Hermione decided to wear her Gryffindor sweater and blue jeans. When they were all ready to go, they made their way to the courtyard.

“Where are the twins?” Theo questioned.

In the distance, Draco could make out three figures getting closer to them. “Found them,” and he pointed.

“Who else is with them?” Hermione wondered.

“Blaise,” Luna answered with a small smile on her face.

A moment later, the three boys were landing in the courtyard. Hermione smiled as she realized her and Fred were dressed in the same Gryffindor sweater. He paired his with a pair of red pants. Blaise was dressed in an all-black ensemble. George was in one of his Weasley jumpers and a pair of blue jeans.

“Are we flying there?” Ginny asked her brothers.

“Yeah,” Fred glanced at Hermione. “It’s the only way,” She was staring at him wide-eyed, and she could feel her chest tighten. Her breathing became erratic. She slowly sat down.

“We couldn’t just apparate?” Draco questioned seeing how Hermione was taking the news.

“The wards won’t allow for it,” Blaise explained.

“I-I’ll be fine, j-just give me a moment,” Hermione breathed out. She tried taking a few deep breaths. She felt someone sit next to her and wrap their arm around her shoulders. She knew it was Fred. She took one last deep breath and looked up at him.

“Do you trust me?” he whispered. His eyes were full of worry, but also a promise to keep her safe. Hermione slowly nodded.

“ _Accio broom_ ,” Draco called, followed by Theo, Ginny, and Neville. Luna was riding with Blaise and Hermione with Fred. Hermione tentatively got on behind Fred and gently wrapped her arms around his waist.

“Erm-love?”

“Hm?”

“You’re gonna wanna hold on tight.”

“Oh, r-right.” Hermione squeezed his middle and closed her eyes. She could hear Fred chuckle and felt her feet leave the ground. She held back a scream and squeezed Fred harder.

“’Mione, love, I need to breath,” Fred laughed.

“Sorry, sorry!” Hermione loosened her hold just a little bit.

“You said you trust me,” Hermione nodded against his back. “Look.”

At first, Hermione shook her head no. But then she took a deep breath and opened one of her eyes. “Oh my…” she breathed as she straightened up and opened her eyes. She was looking at the castle from a new perspective. She could see the stars and moon reflected in the Black Lake. She saw the different constellations they were taught in Astrology and that blasted Divination class. She could see the torches lighting up different parts of the castle. It was whole; not just pieces like you would see from the inside. “Fred this is brilliant. It’s almost like…”

“It’s almost like the war never happened?” Hermione nodded. Fred nodded solemnly. He knew the war had been hard on the young witch. She was finally seeing the world without the having to plan her next move. She could accept the world as it was. “C’mon, love. We’ll be the last ones there and get the smallest pieces of cake.” Hermione laughed and wrapped her arms around his waist as he took off. This time, Hermione kept her eyes open. 

…

The party went on without a hitch. It was held at the Burrow, and everyone was there; the Weasley siblings (minus Ron) and their respective partners, Mr. and Mrs. Weasley, Remus and Tonks, Andromeda, Angelina, Katie Bell, Lee Jordan and Felicity, and the group from Hogwarts. Everyone had fun, laughing, talking, and sipping on Firewhiskey. Hermione was delighted to find Katie there and spent a good majority of the night discussing what she had been up to. Hermione congratulated her on earning a spot on the Harpies. Hermione also made sure to catch up with all the Weasley siblings. Charlie had been in Romania still with his wife, Penelope. Percy had been moving back up in the ministry and his wife, Audrey, worked at the Apothecary. Bill and Fleur were eagerly awaiting the arrival of their first-born child. Little Teddy made his way over to Hermione at one point and changed his hair and eyes to a dark brown. Tonks came over to her.

“It looks like you’re having fun,” she commented as she watched her son bouncing on his godmother’s knee.

“I am. It’s good to have everyone together without…” Hermione faltered.

“Without talking about death lingering above us all and how we escape it? Ya, I hear you.” Hermione laughed. “Even when you first walked in, you were glowing. Is it because of Fred?”

Hermione blushed. “Well- “

“I knew it! Remus owes me 5 galleons,” Hermione gaped at her friend. Tonks laughed at the young girl in front of her. “I’m only joking. But, if he makes you happy, Hermione, don’t lose it.” She looked over at Remus and smiled. “Having someone special… you don’t want to mess it up.”

Hermione nodded. Tonks was right, Hermione did consider Fred special, and she wanted to keep him around. _I’ll tell him tonight,_ Hermione decided, _I’m going to tell him how I feel_. Suddenly, Teddy was being taken from her hands and she looked up to see Teddy giggling on top of Fred’s shoulders. Teddy’s hair changed to a bright orange as Fred twirled him around. Hermione watched the interaction and smiled.

“I’ll leave you two be,” Tonks got up from her spot on the couch. “I have a cousin to drive mad. Oy! Draco!” Tonks went to find her young cousin.

“I hope Draco is ready for that,” Fred laughed as he sat down with Teddy in his arms. He was starting to fall asleep on his shoulder.

“He’ll be fine,” Hermione whispered. She took Teddy and set him down in his basinet. She tucked the blanket around him, and she felt a hand wrap around hers.

“It’s time to open presents,” Fred whispered and she followed him into the kitchen.

Mrs. Weasley was overwhelmed with the number of gifts set before her. She had received an assortment of cooking supplies, new scarves and sweaters, and a picture of her family in a large picture frame. “Thank you so much, everyone, I don’t know what to say.”

“Yes! You guys are all so sweet, you didn’t have to,” Angelina said from beside her future-mother-in-law. Everyone had been so kind and gotten her new clothes and shoes, and Hermione even bought her a healing salve for when she got hurt during Quidditch.

Draco cleared his throat. “Well, erm, I hope you all are prepared for one more gift.” Theo got up from his spot beside Draco and Blaise and walked over to Mrs. Weasley with a large parcel.

“This is from all us Slytherins. As a thank you for…” Theo cleared his throat. The emotion was evident in his voice.

“For taking us in when no one else would,” Blaise finished. Draco nodded.

“And for giving us a chance,” he whispered.

Mrs. Weasley opened the parcel and gasped. Inside was a beautiful dress robe that was a deep green. There were silver accents across the v-line neck. The sleeves were long and would flow freely down her arms. Mrs. Weasley could feel tears prick her eyes. She had never had anything so extravagant. She absolutely adored the dress. “Boys, this is wonderful. Truly, you didn’t have to.”

Mrs. Weasley stood up and gave all three boys a hug. Hermione didn’t miss the few tears fall from Draco and Theo as they hurried to cover them up. She smiled as Mrs. Weasley whispered something to all of them and they smiled. Mrs. Weasley went to go sit down and Draco pulled out another parcel from his pocket and handed it to Angelina.

“For you,” he said. “From all of us Slytherins.”

Angelina opened up the parcel to find a beautiful round necklace with a mint green gemstone set into it. It was stunning and Angelina was scared to touch it.

“It’s a chrysoprase,” Theo explained. “It signifies new relationships. And, you know, with us and your engagement, we thought…” Theo didn’t get to finish as he was being crushed in a hug.

“I love it!” Angelina exclaimed and hugged all three boys. George helped her put on her necklace and she admired it with Katie and Felicity.

“Merlin, they’re practically apart of the family,” Fred whispered to Hermione. She smiled and looked up and was surprised that there was anger hidden behind his gaze. Hermione furrowed her brows. Fred looked over at her and smiled. He pulled her towards the living room.

“Is something wrong?” she questioned as they sat on the couch.

“No,” Fred smiled, “I just thought we could spend a few minutes alone together. So you could tell me how school is _really_ going.”

“What do you mean?”

“Are you sleeping well?”

Hermione smiled, “Actually, with your little invention, I sleep much better. It was rather clever, by the way.”

“Good. It took me ages to make. Especially with the reading. My throat kept getting dry.” Hermione laughed at him.

“Fred?” she started. “I, erm…” she took a deep breath. “There’s something I’ve been meaning to tell you…” Hermione gulped and looked up at Fred. His blue eyes were looking into hers and Hermione felt herself being pulled towards them. _Merlin, he’s going to kiss me!_ She barely had time to process that thought when Ginny came tearing into the room.

“Fred! Hermione! We have to leave, it’s nearly midnight!” And Ginny went to go get the others.

“We better get going,” Fred sighed. He made a mental note to complain to Gin about her poor timing.

“Yeah…” Hermione followed the group outside. As she hopped onto the broom with Fred, she thought more about what Tonks said. _Having someone special…_ Hermione tightened her grip around Fred. She couldn’t see, but he was grinning like mad.


End file.
